A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  THE  i 
^ "ROMAN    PEOPLE 

^^.  ALLEN 


f^ 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


IN  MEMORY  OF 

PROFESSOR  WILLIAM  MERRILL 

AND 

MRS.  IMOGENE  MERRILL 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

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ANCIENT     HISTORY 


COLLEGES  AND   HIGH   SCHOOLS. 

BY 

WILLIAM   F.  ALLEN 

AND 

P.  V.  N.  MYERS. 


Part  II. 
A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  THE  ROMAN  PEOPLE. 


WILLIAM    F.   ALLEN, 

Late  Professor  of  History  in  the  University  of  Wisconsin. 


BOSTON,  U.S.A. : 

PUBLISHED    BY    GINN   &   COMPANY. 

1890. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1890,  by 

GINN   &   COMPANY, 
in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


All  Rights  Reserved. 


GIFT 


Typography  by  J.  S.  Cushing  &  Co.,  Boston,  U.S.A. 
Presswork  by  Ginn  &  Co.,  Boston,  U.S.A. 


To 


Professor  Henry  W.  Torrey, 


WHO     FIRST     AWAKENED     ME    TO     AN     INTEREST 


IN    HISTORICAL    STUDY. 


MG91175 


NOTE. 

On  December  8,  1889,  the  last  night  of  my  husband's  life,  he  made 
the  final  corrections  in  the  proof  sheets  of  the  history,  and  pronounced 
the  work  ready  for  the  public.  The  preface  still,  however,  remained 
to  be  prepared,  and  at  my  request.  Professor  Turner,  first  his  pupil  and 
later  his  friend  and  assistant,  with  whom  he  has  had  daily  conversations 
in  regard  to  his  history,  has  prepared  a  preface,  embodying  my  husband's 
aims  and  plans  for  the  work. 


MARGARET  ANDREWS   ALLEN. 


Madison,  Wisconsin, 
Jan.  I,  1890. 


PREFACE. 


In  this  book  Professor  Allen  desired  briefly  to  relate  the  history 
of  the  Roman  people.  To  him  Roman  society  presented  itself  as 
an  entirety,  so  that  the  political,  economic,  literary,  and  religious 
elements  in  the  life  of  the  Roman  people  could  not  be  understood 
in  isolation,  but  only  in  relation  with  each  other.  While  thus  he 
considered  society  as  a  whole,  he  found  in  Roman  history  two 
fundamentally  important  series  of  events,  each  of  which  influenced 
the  other :  first,  the  pohcy  and  process  by  which  the  Roman  Do- 
minion was  secured  and  organized  during  the  Republic,  its  reor- 
ganization under  the  Empire,  and  final  disruption  at  the  time  of 
the  German  migrations ;  and  secondly,  the  social  and  economic 
causes  of  the  failure  of  self-government  among  the  Romans,  and 
the  working  of  the  same  forces  under  the  Empire.  In  connection 
with  these  fundamental  considerations,  the  land  question  is  treated, 
and  the  history  of  literature  and  religion  is  carefully  traced. 

To  illustrate  and  revivify  more  fully  the  life  of  the  times,  refer- 
ences have  been  made  throughout  the  book  to  carefully  selected 
historical  novels,  and  to  popular  works  for  collateral  reading. 
Professor  Allen's  conception  of  history,  and  the  estimate  which  he 
placed  upon  the  historical  novel  is  shown  by  the  following  quota- 
tion from  his  paper  upon  "  Historical  Fiction,"  read  shortly  before 
his  death,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Madison  literary  Club  :  — 

"The  outline  of  events  —  dates,  dynastic  changes,  decisive  bat- 
tles, wars  of  conquest,  rise  and  fall  of  empires  —  must  be  learned 
as  history.  But  when  we  have  learned  these,  what,  after  all,  do  we 
possess  ?  Only  a  skeleton,  to  be  clothed  with  the  flesh  and  blood 
of  history.     These  facts  have  no  more  value  in  themselves  than 


vi  PREFACE. 

the  names  and  positions  of  the  stars  to  one  who  has  no  knowledge 
of  the  constitution  and  movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies  ;  or  the 
minute  description  of  every  variety  of  beetle  or  lichen,  apart  from 
the  laws  of  growth  and  classification.  Except  for  the  gratification 
of  intellectual  curiosity,  enabhng  us  to  understand  the  allusions  in 
literature  to  historical  names  and  events,  the  value  of  historical 
study  consists  entirely  in  two  things  :  first,  it  teaches  the  relations 
of  cause  and  effect,  as  they  are  exemplified  in  the  working  of  his- 
torical forces,  the  interplay  of  human  passions  and  interests ;  sec- 
ondly, it  introduces  us  to  the  life  of  a  past  generation,  so  that  its 
thouglits,  its  emotions,  its  habits,  its  concerns,  may  in  a  measure 
become  as  real  to  us  as  that  of  the  age  in  which  we  live,  and  the 
people  whom  we  meet  every  day.  These  we  may  call  the  philo- 
sophical and  the  picturesque  aspects  of  history;  and  I  do  not 
know  of  any  other  benefit  conferred  by  historical  study.  No  his- 
torical fact  is  of  any  value  except  so  far  as  it  helps  us  to  understand 
human  nature  or  the  working  of  historic  forces. 

"  Now  the  first  of  these,  the  study  of  historical  causes  and 
effects,  lies  out  of  the  range  of  historical  fiction  as  completely 
as  is  the  case  with  the  systematic  study  of  events.  Both  of  these 
—  events  and  their  interpretation  —  may  come  incidentally  into 
historical  fiction,  but  only  incidentally.  The  methods  are  totally 
different.  These  subjects,  especially  the  relation  of  cause  and 
effect,  must  be  treated  with  a  degree  of  abstraction,  and  almost 
wholly  by  analysis  ;  but  fiction,  as  far  as  it  is  skilful,  avoids  abstrac- 
tions, eschews  analysis.  Its  method  is  synthetic  and  concrete.  It 
is  plain  that  this  concrete  method  of  fiction  is  exactly  adapted  to 
the  second  of  the  two  objects  specified,  —  the  picturesque  aspect 
of  history,  the  delineations  of  life  and  society.  But  what  I  want 
especially  to  point  out  is  that  this  is  precisely  what  formal  instruc- 
tion in  history,  or  formal  historical  treatises,  cannot  do  at  all,  or 
can  do  very  imperfectly." 

Teachers  will  notice  that  the  more  important  dates  are  incorpo- 
rated in  the  text,  while  the  free  use  of  dates  in  the  margin  serves 
to  give  more  detailed  guidance  to  the  reader. 


PREFACE.  vii 

Particular  care  was  taken  in  the  selection  of  maps  and  illustra- 
tions. The  colored  maps  are  reproductions  of  the  charts  accom- 
panying Professor  Freeman's  Historical  Geography  of  Europe. 
The  cuts  are  from  Prang's  Illustrations  of  the  History  of  Art, 
Jaeger's  Weltgeschichte,  and  other  equally  good  authorities. 

Professor  Allen  had  a  strong  admiration  for  Theodor  Mommsen 
as  the  master  of  Roman  history.  To  him,  more  than  to  any 
other  authority,  would  he  have  acknowledged  his  indebtedness. 
He  seldom  differed  with  Mommsen,  and  then  only  after  most  care- 
ful consideration ;  but  he  was  an  earnest  student  of  the  original 
sources,  and  he  did  not  hesitate  to  use  his  own  judgment  and  to 
avail  himself  of  the  researches  of  all  the  best  authorities.  This 
acknowledgment,  the  only  one  possible  under  the  circumstances, 
is  gratefully  made  in  Professor  Allen's  name. 

F.  J.  T. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Chapter  I.  —  Italv i 


PERIOD    I.— THE    MONARCHY     to  B.C.  509). 

Chapter  II.  —  Patrician  Rome. 

I.   History  and  Tradition lO 

H.  Institutions 18 

III.   Religion 22 

Chapter  III.  —  The  Tarquins 29 

PERIOD    II.— THE    EARLY    REPUBLIC   ;  B.C.  509-367). 

Chapter  IV.  —  Social  Controversies. 

I,  The  Tribunate  of  the  Plebs :  to  494^ 38 

II.  The  Agrarian  Laws  :  to  471 44 

Chapter  V. — The  Contest  between  the  Orders. 

I.  The  Contest  for  Civil  Rights  :   to  445 52 

II.  The  Contest  for  Political  Rights :  to  396 61 

III.  The  Triumph  of  the  Plebs :  to  367 68 

PERIOD    III.  — THE    ITALIAN    WARS   (B.C.  367-266). 

Chapter  VI,  —  The  Conquest  of  Latium  :  to  338 77 

Chapter  VII.  —  The  Conquest  of  Italy. 

I.  The  Second  Samnite  War :  to  304 84 

II.  The  Third  Samnite  War :  to  286 92 

III.  The  War  with  Pyrrhus  :   to  266 96 

PERIOD    IV.  — OF   FOREIGN    CONQUEST  (B.C.  266-133). 
Chapter  VIII.  —  The  First  Punic  War  :  to  218 104 

^  The  dates  mark  the  period  covered  in  the  text  by  the  Part  to  which  they  are  affixed, 
and  are,  therefore,  not  always  that  of  the  termination  of  the  event  which  gives  a  name  to 
the  Part;   see  the  Chronological  Synopsis,  /osi. 


X  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Chapter  IX.  —  The  Second  Punic  War. 

I.  To  the  Revolt  of  Capua :  to  216 115 

II.  To  the  End  of  the  War :  to  201 122 

Chapter  X.  —  The  Wars  in  the  East. 

I.  The  Second  Macedonian  War :  to  197 131 

II.  The  Wars  with  Antiochus  and  Perseus  :  to  168 134 

Chapter  XL— The  Supremacy  of  Rome:  to  133 138 

PERIOD   v.  — OF    CIVIL   DISSENSIONS   (B.C.  133-27)- 

Chapter  XIL  — The  Gracchi:  to  121. 

I.  The  Social  and  Economical  Condition  of  Italy 147 

II.  Tiberius  Gracchus 1 54 

III.  Caius  Gracchus ^S^ 

Chapter  XIII.  —  Marius. 

I.  The  Contest  of  Parties  :   to  100 166 

II.  The  Social  War  :  to  90 172 

Chapter  XIV.  —  Sulla. 

I.  The  First  Civil  War  :  to  82 176 

II.  The  Constitution  of  Sulla  :  to  79 • 181 

Chapter  XV.  —  Pompey. 

I.  The  Roman  People 186 

II.  The  Conquest  of  the  East :  to  63 191 

III.  The  First  Triumvirate  :  to  54 I97 

Chapter  XVI. — Csesar. 

I.  The  Conquest  of  Gaul :  to  5 1 205 

II.  The  Second  Civil  War  :  to  44 210 

III.  The  Death  of  Caesar 220 

Chapter  XVII.  —  Octavian  :  to  27 226 

PERIOD   VI.  — THE    EARLY    EMPIRE   (B.C.  27-A.D.  193). 

Chapter  XVIII.  —  Augustus. 

I.  The  Reign  of  Augustus  :  t.^  a.d.  14 231 

II.  The  Augustan  Age 238 

Chapter  XIX. — The  Julian  and  Claudian  Emperors. 

I.  The  Julian  Caesars :  to  41 243 

II.  The  Claudian  Caesars:  to  68 250 

Chapter  XX.  —The  Flavian  House  :  to  96 255 

Chapter  XXL  — The  Five  Good  Emperors. 

L  Trajan:  to  138 261 

II.  The  Antonines :  to  193 269 


CONTENTS.  XI 

PAGE 

PERIOD    VII.  — THE    CENTURY   OF   TRANSITION  (A.D.  193-284). 

Chapter  XXII.  —  The  Severi. 

I.  The  Dynasty  :   to  235 276 

II.  The  Government 279 

III.  The  Religion 282 

IV.  Foreign  Relations 284 

Chapter  XXIII.  —  The  Third  Century  :  to  284 287 

Chapter  XXIV.  —  Affairs  in  the  East :  to  284 289 

PERIOD   VIII.  — THE    LATER    EMPIRE  (A.D.  284-476) 

Chapter  XXV.  —  Reorganization  of  the  Empire. 

I.  Diocletian  :  to  314 296 

II.  Constantine  the  Great :  to  337 302 

Chapter  XXVI.  —The  Triumph  of  Christianity :  to  391 311 

Chapter  XXVII.  —  The  Barbarian  Invasions:  to  419. 

I.  The  Visigoths  upon  the  Danube 316 

II.  Stilicho. 322 

III.  Alaric 325 

Chapter  XXVIII.  —  Aetius:  to  454 329 

Chapter  XXIX.  —  The  Fall  of  the  Empire  :  to  476 336 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

Mystic  Deities  of  Etruria 7 

Gate  at  Volaterrae • 8 

The  Roman  As 12 

Plan  of  Rome  under  the  Kings 16 

Reverse  of  the  As 24 

A  Vestal  Virgin 25 

Restoration  of  Capitol  and  Cloaca  Maxima 31 

Walls  of  Signia 46 

The  Curule  Chair 63 

Etruscan  Archer -  67 

Samnite  Warrior 85 

Sarcophagus  of  Scipio  Barbatus 103 

Column  of  Duilius 107 

Portrait  of  Marcellus  (coin) 123 

Portrait  of  Scipio  Africanus 126 

Etruscan  Tomb  at  Corneto 130 

Philip  V.  (coin) 132 

Antiochus  the  Great  (coin) 134 

Perseus  (coin) 136 

The  Wounded  Gaul 137 

Suovetaurilia 146 

Marius 17° 

Italian  Coin  in  the  Social  War 1 74 

Mithradates  VI.  (coin) 176 

Sulla 181 

Pompey  (statue) 192 


xiv  LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

Cicero 197 

Roman  Rider  and  Sueve 207 

Caesar 214 

Gladiators 225 

The  Young  Caesar 226 

Lictors 230 

Augustus  (statue)  234 

Street  in  Pompeii 242 

Agrippina  (coin) 243 

Tiberius 245 

Germanicus 247 

Vespasian  (coin) 256 

Arch  of  Titus 257 

Roman  Soldier 260 

Trajan 262 

Siege  of  a  Dacian  Stronghold 266 

Hadrian 268 

Antoninus  Pius  (coin) 269 

Marcus  Aurelius  receiving  the  Submission  of  Germans 274 

Commodus  as  Hercules 275 

Septimius  Severus  (coin) 277 

Caracalla 278 

Praetorians 286 

Triumph  of  Sapor 290 

Aurelian  (coin) . .  292 

Ruins  of  Temple  of  the  Sun 293 

Diocletian 296 

Christ  as  the  Good  Shepherd 300 

Arch  of  Constantine ■ 3^3 

Constantine 3^5 

Aetius 331 


LIST   OF   MAPS. 


Colored. 

PAGE 

I.    Italy  before  the  Growth  of  the  Roman  Power lo 

II,   The  Mediterranean  Lands,  at  the  Beginning  of  the  Second  Punic 

War "4 

III.  The  Roman  Dominions,  at  the  End  of  the  Mithradatic  War 196 

IV.  The  Roman  Empire,  at  the  Death  of  Augustus 236 

V.    The  Roman  Empire  under  Trajan 260 

VI.    The  Roman  Empire  Divided  into  Praefectures 308 


Black. 

I.  Rome  under  the  Kings 16 

II.  The  Ager  Romanus,  B.C.  450 >  • . .  66 

III.  The  Ager  Romanus,  B.C.  338 81 

IV.  Central  Italy,  at  the  Time  of  the  Second  Punic  War 118 

V.  Plan  of  the  Battle  of  Cannae 121 

VI.  Rome  under  the  Empire 293 


Part   II. 

ROME, 
CHAPTER    I. 

ITALY. 

The  Mediterranean  Lands.  —  The  Roman  Empire  is  the  great 
central  fact  in  the  history  of  nations.  All  the  nations  of  the 
ancient  world,  except  those  in  the  far  east,  were  one  after  another 
conquered  by  Rome,  and  incorporated  in  her  empire ;  and  the 
nations  of  the  modern  world  began  with  the  disruption  of  this 
empire.  The  nations  of  antiquity,  which  were  thus  gathered  under 
the  dominion  of  Rome,  occupied  the  lands  which  bordered  the 
Mediterranean  Sea  —  the  "circle  of  lands  known  to  the  ancients," 
orbis  ferf-arum  veteribus  notus.  In  this  Mediterranean  circle  of 
lands,  bounded  by  an  impassable  desert  on  the  south,  and  a  suc- 
cession of  almost  equally  impassable  mountain  ranges  on  the 
north,  the  events  of  ancient  history  took  place. 

Natural  Entrances  into  the  Basin  of  the  Mediterranean. — 
There  were  only  five  points  at  which  these  natural  limits  could  be 
easily  passed,  and  at  which  therefore  ancient  history  went  outside 
of  the  circle  of  Mediterranean  lands.  These  were  :  in  the  far 
East,  where  the  river  Euphrates  approaches  so  near  the  sea  as 
to  afford  a  natural  channel  of  intercourse  with  the  countries  of  the 
Orient;  in  Egypt,  where  the  Nile  and  the  Red  Sea,  parallel  to 
each  other  for  a  long  distance,  make  an  easy  passage  to  the  East, 
either  by  caravan  or  by  the  Isthmus  of  Suez ;  by  the  waters  which 
connect  tbf^  Black  Sea  with  the  Mediterranean ;  by  the  pass  of 
the  JuHan  Alps,  at  the  head  of  the  Adriatic  Sea,  into  the  valley 


2  ITAL  Y. 

of  the  Save,  the  only  easy  passage  through  the  Alps ;  and  west  of 
Italy,  where  the  river  Rhone,  flowing  southerly  into  the  sea,  gives 
a  ready  entrance  into  the  countries  of  the  north.  The  three  first 
of  these  have  at  all  times  been  the  great  routes  of  oriental  com- 
merce ;  by  the  Julian  Alps  the  Germanic  invaders  reached  Italy ; 
by  the  Rhone  Csesar  made  his  way  into  inner  Gaul,  Germany,  and 
Britain.  These  five  points  are  marked  by  the  five  great  com- 
mercial cities  of  Antioch,  Alexandria,  Constantinople,  Trieste  (in 
ancient  times,  Aquileia) ,  and  Marseilles. 

The  Coasts  of  the  Mediterranean.  —  The  Mediterranean  Sea 
is  long  and  narrow,  stretching  from  east  to  west.  The  northern 
and  southern  coasts  dilTer  widely  in  character.  The  African 
coast  is  in  general  devoid  of  prominent  features,  whether  prom- 
ontories or  bays.  There  are  only  two  points  upon  this  coast 
which  are  by  nature  well  designed  for  commerce  :  first,  where  the 
great  river  Nile  flows  from  the  south,  creating  the  fertile  land  of 
Egypt,  and  again  where,  west  of  the  shallow  Syrtis,  a  bold  head- 
land thrusts  itself  into  the  sea,  directly  opposite  Italy.  On  this 
headland  stood  the  rich  commercial  city  of  Carthage,  the  chief 
rival  and  enemy  of  Rome  ;  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nile  the 
B.C.  332.  great  emporium  of  Alexandria  was  founded  by  Alexander 
the  Great. 

Northern  Coast  of  the  Mediterranean. — The  northern  coast 
of  the  Mediterranean,  on  the  other  hand,  is  broken  into  four  large 
peninsulas,  —  Asia  Minor,  Greece,  Italy,  and  Spain.  These  penin- 
sulas have  been  the  scene  of  illustrious  events  through  the  whole 
course  of  history.  As  the  earliest  recorded  history  of  mankind 
was  in  the  countries  of  the  East,  and  civilization  moved  from  the 
east  to  the  west,  the  four  peninsulas  came  in  this  order  into  the 
field  of  history.  Asia  Minor  played  an  important  part  in  the  annals 
of  the  great  oriental  empires ;  then  Greece  took  the  lead ;  after 
Greece,  Rome ;  the  greatness  of  the  Spanish  peninsula  belongs  to 
modern  times. 

The  Peninsula  of  Italy.  —  Italy  differs  from  the  three  other 
peninsulas  in  being  long  and  narrow  in  shape.     It  stretches  into 


THE  MEDITERRANEAN  LANDS.  3 

the  sea  in  a  general  southeasterly  direction,  at  its  extremity  bend- 
ing sharply  to  the  south,  so  as  to  present  rudely  the  shape  of  a 
boot,  the  heel  of  which  is  turned  towards  Greece.^  This  south- 
easterly direction  brings  it  very  near  to  Greece  and  Illyricum,  so 
that  the  Adriatic  Sea,  which  separates  it  from  them,  is  long  and 
narrow,  like  the  peninsula  itself.  To  the  west  of  it  are  three  large 
islands,  Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  Corsica,  so  situated  that  the  waters 
between  them  and  Italy  are  almost  enclosed  by  them ;  these 
waters  are  called  the  Tyrrhenian  Sea.  A  long  stretch  of  water 
separates  these  islands  from  the  westernmost  peninsula,  that  of 
Spain.  This  easterly  trend  of  the  Italian  peninsula  gives  it  an 
almost  central  position  in  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 

The  Mountain  Systems.  —  Italy  is  separated  from  the  countries 
to  the  north  by  the  highest  range  of  mountains  in  Europe,  the 
Alps.  These  mountains  form  a  sort  of  semicircle,  coming  down 
quite  to  the  sea  upon  the  west  (the  Maritime  Alps),  and  thus 
separating  Italy  from  Gaul  as  well  as  Germany  by  a  barrier  of 
great  difficulty ;  but  on  the  east  (the  Julian  Alps)  they  open  by  a 
low  and  easy  pass  into  the  valleys  of  the  Save  and  Danube.  This 
pass  of  the  Julian  Alps  was  the  principal  highway  into  Italy  at  the 
time  of  the  barbarian  invasions.  The  great  mountain  chain  of 
Italy,  upon  which  the  peninsula  is  built,  is  that  of  the  Apennines, 
which,  starting  from  the  Maritime  Alps  in  an  easterly  direction, 
bends  by  degrees  to  the  southeast  and  then  to  south,  along  the 
whole  extent  of  the  peninsula :  the  mountains  of  Sicily  are  a  con- 
tinuation of  this  chain.  This  island  was  once  no  doubt  a  part  of 
the  mainland,  but  was  torn  from  it  by  some  convulsion  of  nature. 
This  mountain  chain  presents  in  its  general  course  the  form  of  a 
flattened  arc,  with  its  convex  side  towards  the  northeast :  the 
longest  stretches  of  land,  and  therefore  the  largest  rivers,  are  of 
course  upon  the  inside  of  the  arc,  or  the  western  coast  of 
Italy. 

1  The  illustration  has  been  carried  out  further  by  comparing  the  island  of 
Sicily  to  a  foot-ball. 


4  ITAL  V. 

Cisalpine  Gaul.  —  The  great  basin  between  the  Alps  and  the 
northern  Apennines  is  drained  by  the  river  Padus  (Po),  which 
flows  into  the  Adriatic  Sea.  This  region  was  in  early  times  not 
considered  a  part  of  Italy,  but  was  known  as  Cisalpine  Gaul,  or 
"  Gaul-this-side-of-the-Alps,"  being  inhabited  by  settlers  from 
Gaul :  it  is  now  known  as  Lombardy. 

The  River  Systems.  —  In  Italy  proper  there  are  west  of  the 
Apennines  three  principal  river  systems,  the  seat  in  modern  times 
of  the  three  great  cities  of  Florence,  Rome,  and  Naples,  and  in 
ancient  times  of  the  territories  of  Etruria,  Latium,  and  Campania. 
The  northernmost  of  these  rivers  is  the  Arnus  (Anw)  ;  the  central, 
much  the  largest,  is  the  Tiber,  occupying  nearly  a  central  position 
in  the  peninsula ;  in  Campania,  a  level  region  of  remarkable  fer- 
tility, there  are  two  important  rivers,  —  the  Liris,  flowing  from  the 
north,  parallel  with  the  coast,  and  the  Vulturnus,  which  rises  among 
the  high  mountains  of  Central  Italy.  The  valley  of  the  Liris,  with 
its  confluent  the  Trerus,  serves  to  connect  Campania  directly  with 
Rome ;  through  this  valley  ran  the  so-called  Latin  Way  ( Via 
La/ina),  and  it  is  at  present  the  route  of  the  railroad  from  Naples 
to  Rome.  The  Vulturnus  affords  a  passage  into  the  heart  of  the 
Samnite  country.  The  only  river  necessary  to  mention  on  the 
eastern  coast  of  Italy  is  the  Aufidus,  which  flows  through 
B.C.  216.  the  broad  pasture  land  of  Apulia :  upon  its  banks  was 
fought  the  disastrous  battle  of  Cannae. 

The  Italian  Race.  —  Italy  was  chiefly  occupied  by  nations  of 
the  so-called  Italian  race,  a  branch  of  the  Aryan  family  of  nations, 
to  which  the  Germans,  Slavs,  and  Celts  also  belong.  There  were 
two  principal  branches  of  the  Itahan  race,  the  Latins  and  the 
Umbro-Sabellians.  The  Latins  (to  which  race  also  the  natives 
of  Sicily  belonged  in  part)  occupied  a  rather  Hmited  territory  south 
of  the  Tiber,  between  the  mountains  and  the  sea :  Rome  was  a 
Latin  city.  The  Umbro-Sabellian  race  embraced  a  large  number 
of  nations  spread  widely  through  the  peninsula  :  of  these  the  most 
important  were  the  Umbrians,  furthest  north;  then  the  Sabines 
near  to  Latium,  the  Samnites  upon  the  upper  waters  of  the  Vul- 


THE  NATIONS   OF  ITALY.  5 

turnus,  and  further  south  the  Lucanians.  Of  all  these  the  Sam- 
nites  were  the  most  powerful  and  important. 

The  Remnants  of  Earlier  Nations.  —  Besides  these  nations  of 
Italian  race,  there  are  found  other  nations  of  foreign  stock :  part 
of  them  earlier  inhabitants  who  had  been  pushed  into  out-of-the- 
way  corners  of  the  land  when  the  Italians  entered  the  peninsula — 
Hke  the  Britons  in  Wales ;  part  of  them  invaders  of  a  later  date. 
Of  the  earlier  inhabitants  we  count  the  Japygians,  in  Calabria/  the 
extreme  southeastern  corner  (the  heel)  of  Italy;  the  Venetians, 
in  the  northeast,  who  have  given  their  name  to  the  modern  city  of 
Venice ;  and  the  Ligurians  in  the  northwest.  The  Japygians  and 
Venetians  were  probably  of  the  Aryan  race,  distantly  related  to 
the  Italians  :  the  Ligurians  appear  to  have  been  akin  to  the 
Iberians  of  Spain  and  Gaul.  They  were  subdued  by  the  Romans 
in  the  third  and  second  centuries  before  Christ,  —  in  the  period 
of  the  Punic  Wars,  —  in  a  long  series  of  obstinate  contests.  The 
city  of  Genoa  is  situated  in  the  Ligurian  territory,  and  when  it  was 
reorganized  in  the  time  of  the  French  Revolution,  it  took  the 
name  of  the  Ligurian  Republic. 

The  Intruding  Nations.  —  i .  The  Etrusca7is.  The  intruding 
nations  are  of  more  importance.  Chief  among  these  were  the 
Etruscans,  who  occupied  the  extensive  country  north  of  the  Tiber, 
between  the  mountains  and  the  sea ;  their  chief  seat  was  in  the 
valley  of  the  Arno.  It  is  not  known  with  certainty  what  was  their 
origin;  but  there  are  indications  that  they  entered  Italy  from  the 
north,  occupied  the  valley  of  the  Po  for  a  while,  and  then  con- 
quered the  region  which  is  known  by  their  name,  Etruria.  This 
region  had  before  been  occupied  by  the  Umbrians,  the  northern- 
most of  the  Italian  peoples ;  but  they  were  now  crowded  back 
into  the  mountain  region  east  of  the  upper  Tiber,  which  river 
separated  them  from  the  Etruscans. 

The   Etruscan  Confederacy.  —  The  Etruscans  formed  a  con- 

1  The  name  Calabria  has  in  modern  times  been  shifted  to  a  completely 
different  region,  the  toe  of  the  boot. 


6  ITAL  Y. 

federacy  of  twelve  cities,  the  names  of  which  are  not  known  with 
certainty.  Among  them  were  probably  Fsesulae  (now  Fiesole  near 
Florence)  ;  Arretium  and  "  lordly  Volaterrae,"  also  in  the  valley 
of  the  Arno ;  Clusium,  at  a  point  which  commands  alike  the 
valleys  of  the  Tiber  and  the  Arno  (now  Chiusi,  an  important  rail- 
road junction)  ;  Veii,  about  ten  miles  from  Rome  —  the  most 
formidable  enemy  of  Rome  in  the  first  century  of  the  republic  ; 
and  Caere  and  Tarquinii,  also  near  Rome,  on  the  seacoast.  The 
chief  city  of  the  confederacy  was  Volsinii. 

Etruscans  in  Other  Parts  of  Italy.  —  There  was  another  con- 
federacy of  twelve  cities  in  the  valley  of  the  Po,  probably  older, 
but  less  important,  as  the  Gauls  conquered  this  region  from  them  : 
the  capital,  of  this  group  was  Felsina  (^Bologna)  ;  other  towns 
were  Mantua  and  Ravenna.  South  of  the  Tiber  the  Etruscans 
never  got  a  permanent  foothold.  When  they  were  at  the  height 
of  their  power,  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  an  Etruscan  family  ruled 
for  a  while  in  Rome,  and  even  established  its  dominion  over 
Latium ;  but  this  came  to  an  end  with  the  Roman  republic.  In 
Campania  they  laid  the  foundations  of  a  third  confederacy,  of 

which  the  chief  city  was  Capua ;  but  this  was  captured 
B.C.  420.     by  the  Samnites,  not  long  before  the  conquest  of  the  Po 

valley  by  the   Gauls.     With  the  growth  of  the  Roman 

republic  the  power  of  the  Etruscans  decayed,  and  after 
B.C.  396.     the  conquest  of  Veii  by  Rome  they  played  no  large  part 

in  history. 
Civilization  of  the  Etruscans.  —  At  the  commencement  of  the 
Roman  republic  the  Etruscans  were  far  the  most  powerful  people 

of  Italy.  In  alliance  with  the  Carthaginians  they  had 
B.C.  537.     defeated  the  Greeks  in  the  earhest  sea-fight  on  record, 

near  Corsica,  and  had  taken  possession  of  that  island,  the 
Carthaginians  occupying  the  neighboring  island  of  Sardinia  and  the 
western  half  of  Sicily.  The  government  of  the  Etruscans  was  aristo- 
cratic, but  with  elected  kings,  called  Liiamios.  They  were  a  wealthy 
people,  more  advanced  in  civilization  than  their  neighbors  of  Italian 
race,  but  of  a  gross  and  barbaric  taste.    Their  religion  was  a  sombre 


THE  ETRUSCANS. 


superstition.  In  every  city^pecial  reverence  was  paid  to  Jupiter, 
Juno,  and  Minerva.  The  Etruscan  kings  of  Rome  introduced  this 
worship  into  that  city,  and  this  group  of  deities  is  known  from 
their  temple  on  the  CapitoHne  Mount  as  the  "  CapitoUne  Triad." 


MYSTIC    DEITIES   OF    ETRURIA. 


Their  Language.  —  The  Etruscans  used  an  alphabet  derived 
from  that  of  the  Greeks,  and  have  left  an  abundance  of  inscrip- 
tions ;    but   the    most   laborious   and   long-continued   labors    of 


ITAL  V. 


philologists  have  not  yet  succeeded  iti  deciphering  the  inscrip- 
tions, or  even  in  determining  positively  to  what  race  the  Etruscans 

belonged.  Their  monuments,  in 
the  form  of  walls,  tombs,  etc.,  are 
numerous  and  well  preserved.  It 
has  been  generally  believed  that 
the  civilization  of  the  Romans 
was  largely  influenced  by  that  of 
the  Etruscans ;  but,  although  there 
is  no  doubt  that  the  Romans  re- 
ceived from  them  the  trappings 
and  ceremonial  of  royalty,  the 
institutions  and  civilization  of 
Rome  appear  to  have  been  mainly 
of  independent  growth,  but  influ- 
GATE  AT  voLATERR/E,  SHOWING  THE  euccd  powcrfully  by  the  Greeks. 
PRINCIPLE  OF  THE  ARCH.  r^^^  Etruscans  wcre  great  build- 

ers, and  in  the  time  of  their  domination  in  Rome,  they  adorned 
the  city  with  splendid  temples  and  other  public  works. 

2.  T/ie  Gaids.  The  Gauls,  of  Celtic  race,  crossed  the  Alps  in 
successive  streams  in  the  first  century  of  the  republic  (the  fifth 
century  before  Christ),  and  took  possession  of  the  valley  of  the 
Po,  expelling  from  it  the  Etruscans.  This  region  was  from  this  time 
known  as  Cisalpine  Gaul  (p.  4),  this  name  extending  as  far  as  the 
first  great  bend  of  the  peninsula  upon  the  Adriatic,  where  the  city 
of  Sinigaglia  \Se?ia  Gallica)  preserves  the  memory  of  their  name. 
After  the  conquest  of  this  region  the  Gauls  proceeded  to  invade 
Etruria  proper,  even  advancing  as  far  as  Rome,  which 
B.C.  390.  they  captured  and  burned  ;  for  many  years  after  this  their 
raids  were  a  constant  terror  to  the  inhabitants  of  Latium. 
They  were  organized  in  five  tribes  or  nations,^  and  their  chief  city 


1  The  Insubrians,  about  Milan;  the  Cenomani,  east  of  them;  the  Lingones, 
south  of  the  Po  and  upon  the  coast;  the  Boii,  west  of  them;  and  the  Senones, 
south  of  the  Lingones. 


ITALIAN  INDUSTRY.  •  9 

was  Mediolanum  {Milan).     They  were  conquered  by  the  Romans 
at  about  the  time  of  the  Second  Punic  War. 

3.  The  Greeks.  The  third  intruding  nation  —  earher,  however, 
than  the  Gauls  —  was  the  Greeks,  who  estabUshed  colonies  along 
the  southern  and  western  coasts  of  Italy  in  the  eighth  and  seventh 
centuries  before  Christ.  These  colonies  were  so  rich  and  prosper- 
ous that  this  region  of  country  was  known  as  Great  Greece  {Magna 
Graecia)  ;  its  chief  city  was  Tarentum.  The  most  important 
Greek  colonies  were  in  Sicily,  where  their  principal  city,  Syracuse, 
was  one  of  the  largest  and  most  splendid  in  the  world. 

The  Early  Industry  of  Italy.  —  The  nations  of  Italy  were  culti- 
vators of  the  soil  when  they  entered  the  peninsula,  but  they  had 
not  wholly  outgrown  the  pastoral  stage,  and  the  care  of  cattle 
still  continued  to  form  a  leading  part  of  their  industry.  All 
the  institutions  and  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  early  period 
are  those  of  peasants  dwelling  on  their  own  lands  and  cultivating 
them  with  their  own  hands.  Barley  and  spelt  were  their  principal 
crops ;  they  cultivated  the  vine  at  a  very  early  date,  and  received 
the  olive  from  the  Greeks.  Cattle  made  a  large  part  of  their 
wealth,  and  values  were  reckoned  in  cattle  until  some  time  after 
the  establishment  of  the  republic.  Pasturage  was  at  all  times  an 
important  part  of  their  industry,  especially  east  of  the  mountains. 
The  plains  of  Apulia  supported  great  herds  of  cattle  during  the 
winter,  which  were  then  driven  in  the  summer  to  the  mountain 
regions  of  Samnium  and  Lucania.  The  Greeks  in  the  south  were 
supported  principally  by  commerce.  The  Etruscans,  too,  being 
more  highly  civilized  than  the  nations  of  ItaHan  race,  had  an 
active  foreign  trade ;  and  it  was  the  admirable  commercial  situ- 
ation of  Rome,  with  the  commerce  which  grew  out  of  it,  that 
gave  this  city  its  first  impulse  to  greatness. 


PERIOD    I— THE    MONARCHY. 

CHAPTER    IT. 

TATRICIAN   ROME. 
I.    History  and  Tradition. 

Latium.  —  We  have  seen  that  the  Tiber  was  the  largest  and 
most  central  river  of  the  Italian  peninsula.  South  of  the  Tiber, 
between  the  Apennines  and  the  sea,  stretched  Latium,  the  "  flat 
land,"  about  half  as  large  as  the  state  of  Rhode  Island.^  In  the 
centre  of  Latium  is  the  Alban  Mount,  a  volcanic  group,  nearly 
circular  in  shape,  wholly  surrounded  by  the  low  country  of  Latium. 
Many  of  the  towns  of  the  Latins  were  situated  upon  spurs  of  the 
Alban  Mount ;  for  the  low  lands  (now  known  as  the  Campagna) 
were  exceedingly  unhealthy,  and  the  inhabitants  settled  upon 
elevated  spots,  both  for  health  and  for  security  against  attack. 

The  Latin  Confederacy. — The  Latin  towns  formed  a  con- 
federacy, which  at  first  consisted  of  thirty  towns;  but  in  the 
course  of  time  the  strongest  of  these  conquered  and  annexed  their 
weaker  neighbors,  so  that  when  we  reach  historical  times  there 
were  not  more  than  twelve  or  fifteen  of  these  which  remained 
independent.  The  chief  town  of  the  confederacy  was  Alba  Tonga, 
the  "long  white  town";  but  this  town  was  conquered  by  Rome, 
which  now  succeeded  to  the  presidency  of  the  league.  Every 
year  the  so-called  Latin  Festival  was  celebrated  by  the  Roman 
magistrates  upon  the  summit  of  the  Alban  Mount ;  and  for  the 
purposes  of  this  festival  the  league  always  continued  to  consist 

1  This  was  the  original  Latium;  the  name  was  afterwards  extended  to  the 
country  south  of  it,  as  far  as  the  Vulturnus. 


THE   SITUATION  OF  ROME.  11 

of  thirty  members.  By  the  conquest  of  Alba  Longa  and  other 
towns  Rome  came  into  possession  of  about  one-third  of  the 
territory  of  Latium. 

The  Surrounding  Nations.  —  The  Latins  were  surrounded  on 
all  sides  by  nations  of  foreign  race.  North  of  the  Tiber  were  the 
Etruscans,  of  whom  we  have  already  spoken  (p.  5)  as  being  the  most 
powerful  nation  of  Italy.  The  wars  with  the  Etruscan  city  of  Veil 
were  the  most  serious  in  the  early  history  of  the  republic  ;  and  the 
capture  of  this  town,  B.C.  396,  forms  the  most  important  turning- 
point  in  the  growth  of  the  power  of  Rome.  x\mong  the  Apennines 
east  of  Rome  were  the  Sabines,  a  simple  and  hardy  people  of 
Italian  race.  It  is  believed  that  the  city  of  Rome  was  formed  by 
the  union  of  a  Sabine  settlement  with  a  Latin  town  upon  the  Tiber. 
Further  east,  among  the  mountains,  were  the  y^quians  in  the  in- 
terior and  the  Volscians  near  the  sea ;  and  in  the  valley  between 
them,  watered  by  the  river  Trerus,  a  branch  of  the  Liris,  dwelt  the 
Hernicans.  The  Sabines,  yEquians,  Volscians,  and  Hernicans  all 
belonged  to  the  Umbro-Sabellian  branch  of  the  Italian  race ;  but 
the  Hernicans,  being  lowlanders  Hke  the  Latins,  united  with  them 
in  an  alliance  to  repel  the  raids  of  the  Sabine,  ^quian,  and  Vol- 
scian  mountaineers  (see  Chap.  IV.). 

Rome.  — The  city  of  Rome  was  situated  upon  a  group  of  low 
hills  upon  the  left  bank  of  the  Tiber,  about  fourteen  miles  from  its 
mouth  :  it  thus  occupied  very  nearly  a  central  position  in  Italy, 
and  upon  the  largest  and  most  important  river  of  the  peninsula. 
The  hills  upon  which  it  was  built  were  low,  but  sufficiently  elevated 
to  be  healthy  and  easily  defended.^  It  was  a  Latin  town,  probably 
a  colony  of  Alba  Longa ;  but  at  a  very  early  date  it  was  united 
with  a  Sabine  community. 

Situation  of  Rome :  Its  Military  Importance.  —  The  situation 
of  Rome  upon  the  river  gave  it  two  great  advantages  over  all  the 
other  towns  of  Latium.  First,  there  is  a  high  hill  upon  the  Etrus- 
can side  of  the  river,  directly  opposite,  which  formed  a  natural 

1  The  Esquiline,  the  highest  of  the  hills,  is  about  218  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  sea;   the  Janiculum,  upon  the  other  bank  of  the  river,  is  273  feet. 


12 


PATRICIAN  ROME. 


f 


fortress  to  protect  Latium  against  the  powerful  city  of  Veii,  only 
ten  miles  away.  This  hill,  the  Janiculum,  was  held  by  the  Romans, 
and  connected  with  the  city  by  a  wooden  bridge  (the  po7is 
siiblicius).  ^The  Romans  were  thus  the  chief  champions  of  the 
^Latins  against  their  most  formidable  enemies ;  and  this  fact  kept 
them  in  a  constant  state  of  warlike  preparation  and  activity.  All 
free  men  were  soldiers  in  those  days,  but  the  Romans  surpassed 
all  the  nations  of  antiquity  in  military  prowess. 

Its   Commercial   Importance. — The    second    advantage   that 
Rome  possessed  came  from  its  central  situation,  on  the  largest 


THE    ROMAN    /IS.      (Size  of  the  Original.) 


/  navigable  river  of  Italy.  Just  above  the  bridge  was  an  island  in 
the  Tiber,  and  this  point  was  naturally  the  head  of  navigation  for 
larger  craft.  So  Rome  became  an  active  commercial  town,  not 
merely  for  trade  up  the  river,  but  for  foreign  trade ;  and  when 
the  Romans  had  conquered  the  lower  course  of  the  river  they 
founded  the  colony  of  Ostia  at  its  mouth,  for  the  purpose  of  carry- 


HISTORY,    TRADITION,   AND  MYTH.  13 

ing  on  their  foreign  commerce.  As  the  mihtary  position  of  Rome 
made  the  Romans  the  most  warhke  people  of  antiquity,  so  the 
commercial  advantages  of  its  situation  made  them  the  most  careful 
accountants  and  the  most  business-like  in  their  administration. 
Their  greatness  was  built  upon  these  two  quahties.  The  impor- 
tance of  commerce  and  navigation  to  the  early  Romans  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  the  device  upon  their  coins  is  the  prow  of  a  ship. 

Rapid  Growth  of  Rome.  —  The  commercial  and  military  advan- 1 
tages  arising  from  the  situation  of  Rome  gave  it  a  rapid  growth  in 
wealth  and  power.^  The  first  settlers  were  no  doubt  peasants,  like 
the  rest  of  their  countrymen,  living  by  the  care  of  flocks  and  the 
cultivation  of  the  ground ;  but  their  early  prosperity  came  from 
trade,  and  at  the  time  at  which  we  become  acquainted  with  them 
they  were  already  distinguished  warriors. 

History  and  Tradition.  —  The  authentic  history  of  Rome  be- — 
gins  at  about  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  before  the  Chris- 
tian era.  From  this  time  on,  that  is,  from  the  establishment  of 
the  republic,  we  have  a  list  of  magistrates,  and  an  account  of 
events,  very  meagre  and  incomplete,  it  is  true,  but  derived  from 
contemporary  records,  and  therefore  serving  as  a  basis  for  chro- 
nology. Before  this  time  we  have  only  tradition,  handed  down  by 
word  of  mouth  from  generation  to  generation.  Not  but  that  the 
Romans  possessed  the  art  of  writing  during  this  earlier  period ; 
but  that  they  left  no  continuous  record  of  contemporaneous  origin, 
—  only  a  few  isolated  monuments.  But  there  can  be  no  chro- 
nology, and  therefore  no  genuine  history,  unless  the  record  is  con- 
tinuous as  well  as  contemporaneous.  Nevertheless,  the  value  of 
oral  tradition  is,  so  far  as  it  goes,  very  great.  We  cannot  rely 
upon  it  for  an  accurate  outline  of  events,  but  it  may  preserve  the 
memory  of  individual  names  and  occurrences  as  well  as  of  institu- 
tions and  customs.  Much,  therefore,  that  has  come  down  to  us 
from  this  pre-historic  period,  is  no  doubt  historical  in  character, 
although  it  cannot  be  assigned  to  any  definite  date. 

1  Read  article  by  Goldwin  Smith,  "  The  Greatness  of  Rome,"  in  the  Contem- 
porary Reviezv,  May,  1878. 


14  PATRICIAN  ROME. 

Mythical  Period.  —  As  we  go  back  in  the  narration  of  events, 
we  come  at  last  to  a  time  when  even  tradition  deserts  us,  and  what 
has  come  down  to  us  as  history  is  really  nothing  but  the  product 
of  the  imagmation,  or  even  of  conscious  invention.  This  is  the 
mythical  period.  In  the  history  of  all  primitive  nations  the  earli- 
est narrated  events  must  be  understood  to  be  mythical ;  they  may 
contain  some  germs  of  historical  truth,  but  are  for  the  most  part 
pure  fable.  Then  follow  the  traditions  handed  down  by  oral  mem- 
ory, incomplete,  but  truthful  in  their  substance  ;  only  with  contem- 
poraneous written  records  begins  genuine  history. 

Early  Roman  History.  —  At  the  commencement  of  the  histori- 
cal period  Rome  was  a  republic,  and  it  continued  under  a  repub- 
lican form  of  government  for  nearly  five  hundred  years.  But 
according  to  the  tradition,  which  was  very  recent  and  positive,  and 
which  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt,  Rome  had  shordy  before  been 
governed  by  kings,  and  the  names  of  seven  of  these  kings  were 
preserved  in  memory.  The  reigns  of  the  kings  belong  to  the  tra- 
ditionary period,  and  the  names  and  many  of  the  events  of  the 
reigns  of  all  but  the  two  earliest  may  be  accepted  as  genuine ;  the 
first  two  kings  belong  to  the  realm  of  pure  fable.  During  the  last 
part  of  the  monarchy  the  kings  were  of  an  Etruscan  family  of  the 

name  of  Tarquin ;  it  was  the  tyranny  of  the  last  of  this 
B.C.  509.    family,  Tarquin  the   Proud,  that  drove  the  Romans  to 

rise  in  rebellion,  overthrow  the  kingly  rule,  and  set  up 
a  republic. 
\\     .The  Mythical  Kings.  —  There  were  more  than  twenty  different 

accounts  of  the  way  in  which  Rome  was  founded,  but 
B.C.  753.1    they  all  agree  in  representing  its  founder  and  first  king 

as  Romulus,  who  was  believed  to  be  a  son  of  the  god 
Mars.  It  is  common  for  primitive  nations  to  believe  that  their 
founders  were  of  divine  origin.  For  example,  Cedric,  the  first  king 
of  Wessex,  from  whom  the  kings  of  England  down  to  the  present 
time  have  been  descended,  was  believed  to  be  sprung  from  the 

1  These  dates  are  those  handed  down  by  tradition,  and  must  not  be  taken  to 
be  historically  accurate. 


THE  KINGS  OF  ROME.  15 

god  Odin;  and  even  Alexander  the  Great,  in  the  full  light  of 
history,  claimed  to  be  the  son  of  Zeus.  Romulus  was  associated 
during  a  part  of  his  reign  with  Titus  Tatius,  king  of  the  Sabine 
settlement  upon  the  Quirinal;  in  the  joint  reign  of  these  two 
kings  we  have  the  memory  of  the  union  of  the  Latin  and  Sabine 
communities.  Romulus  was  regarded  as  not  only  the  founder  of 
the  city,  but  as  the  creator  of  its  political  and  military 
institutions ;  while  his  successor,  the  Sabine  Numa  b,C.  715. 
Pompilius,  a  mild  and  peace-loving  sovereign,  was  the 
organizer  of  the  religious  institutions.  In  these  two  kings,  there- 
fore, wholly  mythical  in  character,  were  impersonated  the  funda- 
mental institutions  of  the  city. 

The  Kings  of  the  Patrician  Period.  —  The  kings  who  follow 
Romulus  and  Numa  Pompilius  may  be  considered  as  belonging  to 
genuine   tradition,    and   as   having   a   certain  historical 
character.      Tullus    Hostilius  was  a  warlike  king,  who    B.C.  672. 
conquered  Alba  Tonga,  and  made  Rome  the  head  of 
the   Tatin  confederacy.     Even  before  his   time  the  Romans  had 
conquered  the  towns  upon  the  Tiber  to  a  distance  of  about  twelve 
miles   above   the  city;   and  his  successor  Ancus  Mar- 
cius  extended  these  conquests  to  the  mouth  of  the  river,     B.C.  640. 
where  he  founded  the  sea-port   colony  of  Ostia.      By 
these  conquests  the   Roman  territory,  the  Ager  Romanus,  which 
had  at  first  extended  only  from  two  to  five  miles  in  each  direction, 
was  made  to  include  about  one-third  of  Latium.     Upon 
the  death  of  Ancus  Marcius,  an  Etruscan  by  the  name    B.C.  616. 
of  Lucius  Tarquinius   was    made  king,  and  his  family 
contmued  on  the  throne  until  the  overthrow  of  the  r^mblic.   There 
is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  kings  of  these  names  ruled  in  Rome, 
and  performed  some  of  the  actions  that  are  related  of  them  ;  but  it 
cannot  be  supposed  that  the  dates  of  their  accession  are  correctly 
handed  down  by  memory,  and  it  is  altogether  likely  that  there 
were  other  kings  whose  names  have  been  forgotten,  either  because 
they  did  nothing  deserving  to  be   remembered,  or  because  their 
actions   have   been   ascribed   to   the   more   distinguished  rulers. 


16 


PATRICIAN  ROME. 


According  to  the  traditionary  dates,  the  reigns  of  these  kings 
averaged  nearly  thirty-five  years,  not  an  impossible  thing,  but  a 
very  unusual  a\erage  for  seven  successive  rulers.^ 

The  Early  City.  —  The  original  city  was  upon  the  Palatine  Hill, 
the  most  isolated  of  the  hills  of  Rome,  and  therefore  the  one  best 
fitted  for  an  independent  settlement.     The  Palatine  city  was  called 


1.  ROMA  QUADRATA 
THE,  CITY  o.ROr^LUS 

2.  THE  SABINE  CITY 
3.THEC0MITIUM 

THE  WALLS  or 
SERVIUSTULUUS 


M 


~~    Coeleus 


/ 


7?0M£  uNDin  THi  HINGS, 


Roma  Quadnita,  or  ''Square  Rome  "  ;  some  massive  walls  of  this 
early  town  have  been  discovered  in  recent  years.  By  degrees  the 
town  outgrew  its  walls  and  spread  over  the  surrounding  heights, 
and  then,  as  we  have  seen,  united  with  a  Sabine  city  upon  the 

1  The  seven  first  Capetian  rulers  of  France  reigned  267  years  (from  956  to 
1223),  an  average  of  38  years,  in  every  case  son  succeeding  father;  but  I 
know  no  other  case  of  so  large  an  average. 


THE  ROMAN  DOMAIN.  17 

Quirinal.  The  original  Romans  now  formed  the  tribe  of  Rafnnes, 
while  the  Sabines  were  known  as  Titles.  A  third  tribe,  the  Luceres, 
was  added  afterwards,  perhaps  when  Tullus  Hostilius  'conquered 
Alba  Longa  and  transferred  its  citizens  to  Rome,  settling  them 
upon  the  Coehan  Hill.  In  the  valley  between  the  Palatine  and 
the  Quirinal,  swampy  and  subject  to  overflow,  was  the  Forum  or 
market-place,  and  beside  it,  upon  a  spot  somewhat  more  elevated 
and  dryer,  a  space  was  enclosed  called  the  Comitium,  for  assem- 
blies and  other  public  purposes.  The  citadel  of  the  new  city  was 
upon  a  precipitous  spur  of  the  Quirinal,  called  the  Capitoline.^ 

The  Ager  Romanus,  —  The  original  territory  of  Rome  was  prob- 
ably of  about  the  same  dimensions  as  that  of  most  of  the  other 
Latin  towns,  and  appears  to  have  extended  about  two  miles  to  the 
north  and  west,  and  five  or  six  miles  to  the  east  and  south,  being 
thus  of  nearly  the  size  of  a  Western  "  township."  It  outgrew  these 
Hmits,  however,  long  before  the  historical  period.  Romulus,  as 
we  have  already  said,  is  related  to  have  conquered  the  towns  to  a 
distance  of  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  up  the  river,  and  to  have  annexed 
their  territory;  some  of  these  towns,  if  not  all,  were  probably 
Sabine.  Tullus  Hostilius  conquered  Alba  Longa,  to  the  southeast, 
and  annexed  its  territory,  including  the  summit  of  the  Alban 
Mount,  and  Ancus  Marcius  subdued  the  towns  along  the  lower 
course  of  the  river,  as  far  as  its  mouth. 

The  Enlarged  Domain.  —  At  this  period,  therefore,  the  Roman 
domain  extended  about  fifteen  miles  to  the  northeast,  the  south- 
east, and  the  southwest,  and  comprised  the  entire  course  of  the 
Tiber  to  a  distance  of  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles  from  its  mouth, 
except  the  stronghold  of  Fidense,  about  five  miles  above  Rome, 
which  served  as  a  base  of  operations  upon  the  Latin  side  of  the 
river  for  the  neighboring  Etruscan  city  of  Veii,  just  as  the  Janicu- 
lum  did  for  the  Romans  upon  the  Etruscan  side  of  the  river.  The 
ager  Romanus  was,  however,  very  irregular  in  shape.  The  course 
of  the  Anio,  the  principal  branch  of  the  Tiber  upon  the  east,  was 
occupied  by  the  powerful  cities  of  Gabii  and  Tibur,  while  Tusculum 
1  See  plan,  p.  i6. 


18  PATRICIAN  ROME. 

held  the  northern  slopes  of  the  Alban  Mount,  and  to  the  south  the 
Roman  territory  bordered  upon  those  of  Aricia,  Ardea,  and  Lauren- 
turn.  The  ager  Romanus  at  this  epoch  comprised  about  one-third 
of  Latium,  and  it  was  not  permanently  enlarged  after  this  time 
until  about  a  hundred  years  after  the  establishment  of  the  republic, 
except  by  the  annexation  of  Gabii  by  the  last  Tarquin. 

II.     Institutions. 

Patrician  Rome.  — The  reigns  of  these  first  four  kings  of  Roman 
tradition  mark  a  distinct  period  of  time,  which  must  have  continued 
much  longer  than  tradition  has  it,  and  which  we  may  call  Patrician 
Rome,  because  the  only  citizens  at  this  period  were  the  members 
of  those  families  which  were  afterwards  known  as  patrician.  There 
were  other  inhabitants,  but  these  were  either  held  in  servitude,  or 
were  wholly  without  political  rights. 

/  The  Gentile  System.  —  In  this  period  the  Roman  people,  like 
all  primitive  communities,  consisted  of  a  number  of  family  groups 
called ^^;^/^^  ("clans"),  the  members  of  each  of  which  beheved 
themselves  to  be  descended  from  a  common  ancestor.^  Each  gens 
consisted  of  a  number  of  famihes,  each  under  the  authority  of  the 
"  father  of  the  family  "  {pater-familias),\A\o  ruled  with  absolute 
sway  over  his  wife  and  children,  even  having  the  right  to  put  them 
to  death.  The  members  of  these  families  were  called  patricians^ 
or  "  sons  of  the  fathers  "  {patres)  ;  and  no  one  but  those  who  be- 
longed to  these  patrician  families  had  any  share  in  the  government. 
Each  clan  belonged  to  one  of  the  three  tribes  of  which  the  Roman 
people  were  composed  (p.  17),  and  each  tribe  was  divided  into 
ten  curies  {curiae),  groups  intermediate  between  the  tribes  and  the 
clans.  ^  Every  Roman  citizen  thus  belonged  at  once  to  a  family,  a 
'  gfnSy  a  curia,  and  a  tribe. 

1  The  name  of  the  gens  was  a  patronymic,  indicating  descent  from  this 
ancestor;  e.g.,  the  Julian  ^^wj  {gens  lulia)  claimed  to  have  derived  their  name 
from  that  of  lulus,  son  of  ^Eneas. 


THE    GOVERNMENT.  19 

Divisions  of  Land.  —  It  is  believed  that  when  the  several 
branches  of  the  Italian  race,  in  their  migration,  moved  into  the 
peninsula  from  the  north,  they  were  already  organized  in  these  family 
groups  or  clans,  each  settling  by  itself  in  a  territory  of  its  own. 
They  afterwards  associated  themselves  into  larger  organizations, 
but  each  clan  still  continued  to  occupy  its  own  district  of  land. 
The  names  of  the  early  divisions  of  the  Roman  domain,  so  far  as 
they  are  preserved,  are  derived  from  those  of  patrician  clans  ;  and 
we  are  informed  that  each  curia  and  each  tribe  also  had  a  territory 
of  its  own. 

The  Government  of  Rome. — The  Romans  were  governed  by 
an  elected  king,^  who  was  also  the  chief  priest  of  the  people,  their 
judge,  and  their  commander  in  war.  The  people  were  a  collection 
of  families,  each  under  its  pafe?'-familias,  and  the  king  was  the 
pater-fa77iilias  of  the  whole  people.  These  heads  of  families,  who  [ 
had  absolute  power,  each  in  his  own  household,  composed  a  Senate, 
or  Council  of  Elders  {setiior  means  "elder"),  which  served  as  a 
council  to  the  king.  The  senators,  being  all  heads  of  famihes, 
or patres-familias,  were  called  the  patres,  "fathers."  Afterwards 
—  indeed,  in  the  earliest  historical  times,  —  the  senators  were 
appointed  by  the  king.^  Their  number  was  three  hundred,  and 
this  continued  to  be  the  regular  number  of  senators  until  the  last 
century  of  the  republic.  Besides  the  Senate,  there  was  an  assem- 
bly, composed  of  the  body  of  citizens ;  that  is,  of  all  capable  of 
bearing  arms,  whether  they  were  heads  of  families  or  not.  This 
assembly  met  and  voted  by  curies ;  a  vote  was  never  taken  of  the 
people  of  a  whole,  but  each  curia  voted  by  itself,  and  the  majority 
of  the  curies  decided  the  question.  The  assembly  thus  organ- 
ized was  called  coinitia  curiata.  '*' 

1  In  the  elective  character  of  the  monarchy  the  Romans  differed  from  the 
Greeks,  whose  kings  reigned  by  hereditary  title.  Under  the  Tarquinian  dynasty 
the  Roman  monarchy  also  appears  to  have  become  hereditary. 

^  In  the  republic  the  appointment  of  senators  was  made  at  first  by  the  consuls 
and  then  by  the  censors;  in  the  last  century  of  the  republic  all  who  had  held 
certain  offices  became  members  of  the  Senate  without  formal  appointment. 


20  PATRICIAN  ROME. 

'  -■"  The  Auspices.  —  The  Romans  believed  that  their  city  was  under 
the  immediate  care  and  protection  of  the  gods,  and  that  the  gods 
would  express  their  will  to  them  by  signs,  called  auspices.  These 
auspices  were  interpreted  by  a  body  of  priests,  called  augurs,  and 
no  public  action  was  ever  entered  upon  without  consulting  the 
;  gods  by  auspices.  The  auspices  therefore  formed  the  foundation 
of  the  public  authority,  and  were  regarded  as  belonging  to  the 
Senate,  because  the  Senate  was  composed  of  all  persons  who  had 
authority  in  their  families.  But  although  the  auspices  belonged  to 
the  Senate,  they  were  temporarily  lodged  in  the  hands  of  the  king, 
or  (under  the  republic)  of  the  elected  magistrate,  and  he  alone 
had  the  right  to  consult  the  gods  in  behalf  of  the  state.  When 
there  were  no  magistrates,  as  on  the  death  of  the  king,  or  a  failure 
to  elect  consuls,  the  auspices  returned  to  the  Senate,  where  they 
belonged  {auspicia  ad patres  redieruiit)  ;  this  was  called  an  inter- 
I'egnum,  and  the  city  was  governed  by  an  i?iterrex  until  the  vacancy 
was  filled  by  a  new  election.^  In  virtue  of  the  auspices  the  Senate 
possessed  the  right  to  nullify  any  action  of  the  assembly  which 
appeared  to  conflict  with  the  religion  or  constitution  of  the  state. 

^  The  Army. — The  army,  or  "levy"  (Zf^/^^),  was  composed  of 
one  thousand  men  from  each  tribe  {j?nlites,  from  milk,  "thou- 
sand"), and  the   commander  of  each  tribe  was   called   tribune 

I     {tril)u?ius).     There  was  also  a  body  of  cavalry,  consisting  of  three 

I"  companies  ("  centuries ")  of  one  hundred  men  each,  one  from 
each    tribe.     This    number   was    afterwards  doubled,  and  subse- 

y    quently  raised  to  eighteen. 

\—  ^  The  Dependent  Classes.  — The  Romans  also  had  slaves,  for  the 
most  part  persons  who  had  been  captured  in  war.  Each  gens  had 
likewise  a  number  of  serfs,  called  clients,  who  cultivated  the  lands  of 
the  gens,  bore  its  name  and  took  part  in  its  sacrifices.  The  clients 
probably  belonged  to  some  foreign  race  which  had  been  subjugated 

1  by  the  Latins,  but  not  reduced  to  slavery.  They  were  personally 
free,  but  had  no  legal  or  pohtical  rights ;    each  client  had  to  be 

1  The  interrex  governed  for  only  five  clays,  and  there  was  sometimes  a  long 
succession  of  intcrrcj-a  before  the  vacancy  could  be  filled. 


THE  PLEBEIANS.  21 

represented  by  some  patrician  head  of  a  family,  who  was  called  his 
patro7u  When  a  slave  was  emancipated,  he  became  the  cHent  of 
his  former  master,  and  was  known  as  a  freedjuan  {libertus).  A 
second  dependent  class  consisted  of  traders  and  handicraftsmen, 
of  foreign  birth,  who,  like  the  clients,  had  to  be  represented  by  a 
patrician  patron.  This  class  became  very  numerous  with  the 
growth  of  foreign  commerce,  especially  after  the  foundation  of  the 
seaport  colony  of  Ostia  (p.  15). 

The  Rural  Plebeians.  —  There  was  another  class,  more  im-  "^ 
portant  than  either  the  chents  or  the  resident  foreigners ;  —  the 
inhabitants  of  the  conquered  Latin  towns,  who  had  not  been 
admitted  to  the  patriciate.  These  were,  unlike  the  clients,  of  the 
same  race  with  the  Romans,  and  had  the  same  fundamental  insti- 
tutions. They  were  peasants,  as  the  Romans  were  originally,  and 
when  they  had  lost  their  political  independence,  they  had  retained 
their  personal  freedom,  a  part  of  their  land,  and  full  rights  of 
property  and  trade  {com?nerdum) .  Many  of  them  were  pros- 
perous and  wealthy  farmers.  Being  foreigners  in  Rome,  however, 
they  had  not  the  right  of  intermarriage  {conubium)  with  patricians  ; 
for  in  early  society  this  right  exists  only  by  special  agreement. 
Their  legal  status  was  that  of  the  clients,  and  they  have  been  called 
the  clients  of  the  state.  This  class  was  known  as  plebeians  ;  but^ 
they  were  distinguished  on  one  hand  from  the  clients  by  being  free- 
holders, and  on  the  other  from  the  resident  foreigners  by  being 
peasants  ;  in  the  course  of  time  these  other  two  classes  were  associ- 
ated with  them,  and  the  name  plebeian  was  applied  to  all  who 
were  not  patricians.  It  was  this  class  of  free  peasants,  whom  we 
may  call  the  rural  plebeians,  that  carried  on  the  long  contest  for 
social  and  political  equality  during  the  first  century  of  the  republic. 

The  Patrician  Gentes.  —  It  will  be  seen  by  this  description '-- 
that  each  patrician  gens  formed  a  little  community  by  itself,  the 
state  being  an  association  of  these  communities.  No  doubt  at 
first  the  lands  of  the  gens  belonged  to  the  gens  as  a  community  : 
but  in  the  very  earliest  historical  accounts  we  find  every  man  own- 
ing his  own  land.    Perhaps  each  gens  was  originally  under  a  single 


22  PATRICIAN  ROME. 

head  :  but  when  we  come  to  the  knowledge  of  them  they  appear 
rather  as  aristocracies,  each  containing  several  powerful  noblemen. 
They  of  course  differed  greatly  in  number  and  wealth ;  but  one  of 
these  clans,  with  its  slaves  and  clients,  must  have  been  a  powerful 
and  formidable  body.  * 

Power  of  the  Gentes.  —  The  patrician  noblemen  remind  us,  in 
their  turbulent  independence,  of  the  barons  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
It  is  related  that  the  Fabian  gens  voluntarily  carried  on 
B.C.  479.     a  war  against  Veii  by  its  own  resources ;  the  number  of 
its  members  at  this  time  is  given  as  three  hundred  and 
six,  besides  three  or  four  thousand  clients.     Appius  Claudius,  the 
founder  of  the  Claudian  gens,  emigrated  from  the  Sabine  country 
with  over  five  thousand  clients,  from  which  it  appears  that  the 
Sabines  also  had  a  nobility  like  the  Roman  patriciate.     We  find  a 
similar  nobility  in  other  Latin  towns ;  but  the  Roman  patricians 
differed  from  the  others  in  having  made  large  fortunes  by  foreign 
commerce.     We  shall  better  understand  the  importance   of  this 
fact  when  we   come  to  the  economic  disturbances  of  the  early 
republic.  '  The  Roman  patricians  may  therefore  be  described  as  a 
I    rich  landed  and  commercial  nobility,  with  a  large  body  of  serfs 
^  (clients)  and  slaves.     The  rural  plebeians,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
free  peasants,  the  common  freemen  of  the  Italian  race ;  while  the 
clients  were,  in  all  probability,  the  remains  of  a  subjugated  popu- 
lation of  foreign  stock. 

III.     Religion. 

r^  Religion.  — The  religion  of  the  Romans  was  a  form  of  nature- 
worship.  They  believed  in  the  existence  of  special  spirits  {iiiimind) 
who  controlled  the  several  departments  and  operations  of  nature. 
To  these  they  gave  names,  conceiving  of  them  as  male  and  female  ; 
thus  Vulcan  was  the  god  of  fire,  and  Neptune  of  the  sea,  while 
every  process  of  growth  in  plants  or  in  the  human  body  had  its 

Special  deity .^  But,  although  they  personified  the  powers  of  nature 

1  E.g.,  Ossipago,  who  knits  the  joints  of  the  child's  body;    Carna,  who 
strengthens  his  flesh;     Nodotus,  who  forms  the  joints  in  the  growing  plant; 


THE   ROMAN  RELIGION.  23 

in  this  way,  and  gave  them  names,  they  did  not,  Hke  the  Greeks, 
imagine  them  as  hke  human  beings,  hving  together  in  a  world 
by  themselves,  and  from  time  to  time  taking  part  in  the  affairs  of 
men.  Rather,  they  looked  upon  them  as  abstract  powers,  whose 
only  function  it  was  to  direct  the  operations  of  nature.  They  had 
no  statues  of  their  gods  in  the  earliest  times,  but  worshipped  them 
in  symbolic  forms  or  "  fetishes."  Thus  Jupiter  was  symbolized  by 
a  piece  of  flint.  Mars  by  a  spear,  Vesta  by  the  sacred  flame.  They 
also  personified  the  abstract  qualities  themselves,  such  as  Honor, 
Modesty,  Panic,  Harmony :  to  these  deified  qualities  they  built 
temples  and  offered  sacrifices.  In  a  rehgion  like  this  there  could 
be  very  few  myths,  or  stories  about  the  actions  of  their  gods,  such 
as  the  Greeks  delighted  in.  On  the  other  hand,  they  had  very 
elaborate  and  solemn  forms  of  worship,  which  they  exercised  with 
the  greatest  formality  and  precision. 

The  Chief  Gods  of  Rome.  —  Their  chief  god  was  Jupiter,  god 
of  the  sky  and  the  atmosphere  ;  he  was  the  special  guardian  of  the 
vine,  which  depends  so  much  upon  the  weather  for  its  fruitfulness. 
In  the  time  of  the  Tarquins,  Jupiter  was  associated  with  Juno  and 
Minerva  to  form  what  is  known  as  the  Capitoline  Triad  (p.  7). 
Mars,^  the  god  of  heroic  strength,  was  the  special  protecting  deity 
of  the  Italian  race,  especially  of  the  Romans ;  and  when  the 
Romans  grew  into  a  great  military  nation,  they  identified  him  with 
the  Greek  Ares,  and  made  him  the  special  god  of  war.  The 
original  goddess  of  war  was  Bellona  (from  belliwt,  "war").  The 
Sabine  Romans  had  also  their  god  of  war,  Quirinus,  a  counterpart 
of  Mars.  Jupiter,  Mars,  and  Quirinus  were  distinguished  above 
all  other  gods  in  the  primitive  religion,  and  each  had  a  priest  of 
his  own,  called  a  flamen}  Mars  also  had  a  company  of  priests 
called  "leapers"  {Salii),  young  men  of  noble  birth,  who  every 

Volutina,  who  wraps  the  leaves  in  folds.     Saturnus  (of  sowing),  Minerva  (of 
memory) ,  Flora  (of  flowers) ,  were  originally  divinities  of  this  class. 

1  The  name  is  probably  from  the  same  root  as  mors,  "  death,"  and  perhaps 
mas,  "  male." 

2  There  were  also  twelve  inferior  flamens,  of  Vulcan,  Flora,  Pomona,  etc, 


24 


PATRICIAN  ROME. 


year,  in  his  month  {Ma?rh),  went  in  a  procession  through  the 
city,  leaping  and  dancing,  and  beating  their  shields  with  spears. 
Janus  {Diajius)  and  Diana  were  the  god  and  goddess  of  the  sun 
and  moon ;  but  Janus  became  especially  the  god  of  beginnings. 
Every  prayer  began  with  an  invocation  to  him,  and  the  first  month 
of  the  year,  Jajiimry,  was  named  for  him.  He  was  represented  as 
having  two  faces  turned  in  opposite  directions.  Many  gods  and 
goddesses  of  great  importance  in  this  early  time  afterwards  became 


HEAD  OF  JANUS,  UPON  THE  REVERSE  OF  THE  ROMAN  AS. 

insignificant ;  others,  like  Ceres  and  Minerva,  rose  in  importance ; 
while  others,  such  as  Apollo,  ^sculapius,  Bacchus,  and  Isis  were, 
in  the  course  of  time,  introduced  from  Greece  and  other  countries. 
The  Worship  of  Vesta.  — Vesta  ('Eo-rta) ,  goddess  of  the  hearth, 
is  the  only  deity  common  to  both  Greeks  and  Romans,  except 
Jupiter  ("father  Zeus").  The  family  altar,  with  its  worship  of  the 
household  gods  and  deified  ancestors,  was  the  centre  of  the  fife  of 
every  household.  Every  household  had  its  lav  familiaris  ^  (house- 
1  In  later  times  there  were  always  two  lares. 


WORSHIP   OF   VESTA. 


25 


hold  god  of  the  family),  who  was  worshipped  in  company  with 
Vesta.  In  these  sacred  rights  {sacra)  was  the  life  of  the  family. 
Each  of  the  larger  outgrowths  of  the  family  —  the  gens,  the  tribe, 
and  the  city  itself —  had  its  altar  and  its  domestic  worship,  under 
the  patronage  of  Vesta ;  the  clients  of  the  gens  also  participated 
in  these  sacra.  The  sacred  hearth  of  the  city  was  in  the  round 
temple  of  Vesta,  near 
the  Forum. ^  Here  she 
was  served  by  the  Vestal 
Virgins,  at  first  four, 
afterwards  six  in  num- 
ber, maidens  of  free 
birth,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  keep  the  fire  always 
burning  upon  the  altar. 
If  it  should  be  extin- 
guished by  any  acci- 
dent, it  must  be  lighted 
from  a  "pure  flame," 
which  had  not  served 
human  purposes,  either 
by  striking  a  spark  with 
flint,  or  by  rubbing  to- 
gether two  dry  sticks ; 
and  if  any  one  of  the 
virgins  should  break  her 
vows,  it  was  a  portent  of 
dreadful  meaning. 

The  Festivals.  —  The  Romans  being  a  community  of  peasants, 
all  their  festivals  in  early  times  were  such  as  belonged  to  the  life  of 
shepherds  and  husbandmen.  Among  these  were  the  Falilia,  April 
21,  to  Pales,  the  goddess  of  flocks  :  on  this  day  it  was  beheved 


A  VESTAL  VIRGIN. 


1  The  foundations  of  this  temple  and  the  remains  of  the  residence  of  the 
Vestals  have  been  recently  excavated.  The  portrait  of  the  Vestal,  given  in  the 
text,  is  from  a  statue  discovered  here. 


26  PATRICIAN  ROME. 

that  the  city  had  been  founded  by  Romulus.  On  April  28  was  the 
procession,  on  the  farms,  to  propitiate  Robigo  (rust  or  mildew),  the 
chief  enemy  of  the  growing  crops.  Towards  the  end  of  May  were 
the  Ambarvalia}  or  procession  to  purify  and  bless  the  fields ;  it 
ended  with  the  Suovetaurilia,  or  lustratory  sacrifice  of  a  bull,  a 
swine,  and  a  sheep.  A  similar  celebration  in  behalf  of  the  city  was 
made  at  the  same  season  by  an  association  {colkgiu?n)  of  noble 
young  men,  called  the  Arval  Brothers  {Fratres  Arvales).  This 
institution  was  kept  up  with  great  devotion,  even  during  the  em- 
pire ;  and  a  number  of  inscriptions,  describing  the  ceremony  in  all 
details,  have  been  discovered  in  their  sacred  grove,  in  a  spot  near 
the  Tiber,  about  five  miles  from  the  city.  In  August  were  the 
Cofisualia,  or  festival  to  Consus,  the  god  of  the  granary  (from 
condo,  to  store  away),  sometimes  called  the  Equestrian  Neptune. 
It  was  at  this  festival  that  the  Romans,  under  Romulus,  were 
believed  to  have  provided  themselves  wives  by  seizing  the  Sabine 
maidens,  who  had  come  as  spectators  of  the  games.  On  December 
1 7  was  the  festival  of  Saturn,  the  god  of  sowing :  the  Saturnalia. 
On  this  occasion  slaves  were  allowed  their  freedom  for  the  day, 
and  indulged  themselves  in  boisterous  merriment.  In  September 
were  the  Great  or  Roman  Games,  —  horse-races  and  such-like. 
These  were  held  in  the  Circus  Maximus,  in  the  valley  between  the 
Palatine  and  the  Aventine. 

The  Priesthoods.  —  The  public  exercises  of  religion  were  under 
tlie  management  of  the  king,  who  was  the  chief  priest  of  the  city, 
assisted  by  a  board  {collegiu7ti)  of  "pontiffs,"  at  this  time  four  in 
number,  afterwards  fifteen.  A  similar  board,  called  the  Augurs, 
had  the  duty  of  interpreting  the  auspices  or  signs  sent  by  the  gods 
to  the  king  or  other  magistrate  in  behalf  of  the  city.  A  company 
of  Heralds  {Fetiales)  had  the  duty  of  performing  the  ceremonies 
in  the  declaration  of  war,  and  other  offices  of  an  international 
character.  The  Luperci,  of  whom  there  were  two  companies,  per- 
formed, on  the  fifteenth  of  February,  a  strange  ceremony,  running 

1  See  an  interesting  description  of  this  festival  in  Pater's  Marius  the 
Epicm'ean. 


THE  PRIESTHOODS.  27 

nearly  naked  through  the  city,  and  striking  whomever  they  met 
with  thongs  made  of  the  hides  of  newly  slaughtered  goats.  Their 
course  followed  the  enclosure  of  the  earliest  city,  around  the 
Palatine. 

The  Calendar. — The  Romans  reckoned  time  by  the  course  of  / 
the  moon ;  the  appearance  of  the  new  moon  was  proclaimed 
{calare)  by  the  pontiffs,  and  this  first  day  of  the  month  was  known 
as  the  Kalends.  A  cycle  {annus)  of  ten  months  was  employed  for 
contracts  and  treaties,  but  at  a  very  early  period  a  year  of  twelve 
months  was  adopted,  to  bring  the  reckoning  by  moons  into  corre- 
spondence with  the  course  of  the  sun.  -J 

Money.  —  As  a  standard  of  weight  they  employed  the  as 
(pound),  divided  into  twelve  uncicE  (ounces).^  The 
Romans  coined  no  money  until  about  the  time  of  the  b,0.  451. 
Decemvirs,  but  copper  was  cast  in  pound  bars,  and  in 
all  purchases  the  copper  was  weighed.  As  late  as  the  time  of  the 
Decemvirs  fines  were  imposed  in  oxen  and  sheep  instead  of 
money. 

Art.  —  There  are  no  indications  among  the  early  Romans  of  the 
fine  artistic  sense  which  distinguished  their  kinsmen  the  Greeks  at 
the  same  stage  of  advancement.  The  aesthetic  qualities  were  not 
absent  from  the  Italian  peoples,  as  has  been  shown  at  more  than 
one  epoch  since ;  but  they  were  held  in  check  by  the  severe  and 
practical  turn  which  the  Roman  mind  took  in  every  department. 
No  doubt,  like  every  body  of  peasants,  they  had  their  simple 
tunes  and  their  popular  songs,  celebrating  the  brave  deeds  of  their 
fathers.  From  such  songs,  handed  down  in  family  circles,  are 
derived  the  legends  of  Coriolanus,  Camillus,  and  other  worthies  of 
the  olden  time." 

The  Roman  Character.  —  The  Roman  religion,  which  was  at 
bottom  identical  with  that  of  the  Greeks,  had  received  a  totally 
different  bent,  and  came  to  consist  almost  exclusively  in  observ- 

1  The  ounce  was  divided  into  24  scruples :  from  this  our  table  of  Apothe- 
caries' Weight  is  derived. 

2  See  Macaulay's  Lays  of  Ancient  Rofue. 


28  PATRICIAN  ROME. 

ance  and  ceremonial.  It  was,  therefore,  excessively  formal  and 
mechanical.  But  if  their  religion  was  devoid  of  beauty,  it  exerted 
a  wholesome  influence  on  character.  The  Romans  were  a  serious, 
just  people,  although  stern  and  severe ;  and  their  religion,  in  its 
primitive  condition,  was  almost  wholly  free  from  the  indecencies 
and  excitements  which  are  found  even  among  the  Greeks,  and  still 
more  in  the  religions  of  Asia.  In  the  best  time  of  the  republic 
they  had  the  simple  manners  and  homely  virtues  of  peasants. 
At  a  later  period  they  lost  their  seriousness,  while  their  sternness 
degenerated  into  wanton  cruelty,  and  the  native  simplicity  of 
their  religion  was  obscured  by  immoralities  and  orgies,  mostly  of 
oriental  origin. 

In  short,  the  genius  of  the  Romans  was  essentially  practical. 
Their  religion  consisted  wholly  in  works ;  art  and  literature  were 
foreign  to  their  genius  :  but  even  in  their  earliest  estate  we  note, 
in  their  military  achievements,  their  political  contests,  and  their 
system  of  law,  the  three  fields  in  which  they  were  destined  to 
make  their  greatest  contributions  to  civilization,  —  war,  govern- 
ment, and  jurisprudence. 


THE    TAR  QUINTAN  EMPIRE.  29 

CHAPTER    III. 

THE  TARQUINS. 

The   Tarquinian    Dynasty.  —  According   to   tradition,   Ancus  " 
Marcius,  the  fourth  king,  was  followed  by  three  successive  kings  of 
Etruscan  origin,  belonging  to  the  family  of  Tarquin,  — 
Lucius  Tarquinius  the  Elder  {Friscus)  ;  his  son-in-law,     B.C.  616. 
Servius  TuUius ;  and  son,  Lucius  Tarquinius  the  Proud     B.C.  578. 
{Superbus) .     It  is  evident  that  the  story  in  this  form  is     B.C.  534. 
impossible,  for  the  younger  Tarquin  is  represented  to 
have  been  still  a  young  man  after  the  long  reign  (forty-four  years) 
of  the  alleged  usurper,  Servius  Tullius.     There  is  no  reason  to 
doubt,  however,  that  a  line  of  kings  of  this  name  reigned  in  Rome, 
and  that  it  was  of  Etruscan  origin.     The  last  Tarquin  was  expelled, 
on  the  ground  of  tyranny,  at  about  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury before  Christ,^  and  a  republican  government  established. 

Achievements  of  the  Tarquins.  —  The  rule  of  the  Tarquins  is 
marked  by  three  principal  achievements  :  the  establishment  of 
their  power  over  all  Latium,  the  construction  of  great  public  works, 
and  the  abolition  of  the  exclusive  privileges  of  the  patricians.  ^ 

1.  The  Tarquinian  Empire.  —  We  have  seen  (p.  17)  that  the 
Roman  territory,  ager  Ro?nanus,  at  the  accession  of  this  dynasty, 
had  been  extended  by  the  conquests  of  Tullus  Hostilius,  Ancus 
Marcius,  and  earlier  kings,  so  as  to  reach  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Tiber  to  a  point  about  thirty  miles  up  the  river,  and  also  in  a 
southeasterly  direction  to  the  Alban  Mount,  including  the  summit 
of  this  mountain  :  making  in  all  about  a  third  of  Latium.  On  the 
river  the  Romans  did  not  succeed  in  permanently  holding  the 
stronghold  of  Fidenae,  about  five  miles  from  Rome,  near  to  Veii 
and  generally  in  alliance  with  it.     Below  the  city,  on  the  other 

1  The  traditionary  date  was  B.C.  509. 


30  THE    TAR  QUINS. 

hand,  they  held  both  banks  of  the  river.  On  the  Alban  Mount 
the  Roman  territory  thrust  itself  like  a  wedge  between  that  of 
two  Latin  towns,  Tusculum  and  Aricia. 

The  Conquests  of  the  Tarquins.  —  To  this  extensive  territory 
the  Tarquins  added  nearly  all  the  rest  of  Latium ;  not,  however, 
annexing  it  to  the  Roman  domain,  but  holding  it  as  tributary.  In 
the  confusion  of  the  revolution  which  put  an  end  to  the  monarchy, 
the  Latins  regained  their  independence,  and  the  Roman  territory 
had  nearly  the  same  extent  at  the  commencement  of  the  republic 
which  it  had  had  under  Ancus  Marcius. 

2.  The  Public  Works  of  the  Tarquins.  —  The  most  important 
of  the  public  works  of  this  period  were  three  in  number.  First, 
the  splendid  temple  of  Jupiter,  with  side  chapels  to  Juno  and 
Minerva,^  upon  the  Capitoline  Hill.  This  building  was  known  as 
the  Capitolium,  or  Temple  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus,  and  was  regarded 
as  the  seat  of  the  Roman  dominion."  Secondly,  a  magnificent  set 
of  sewers,  the  principal  of  which  was  the  great  sewer,  Cloaca  Max- 
iina,  which  drained  the  marshy  valley  between  the  hills,  and  ren- 
dered the  ground  fit  for  the  purposes  of  the  market-place  {Fofu??i) 
and  the  place  of  public  assemblies  {Comitiuni).  In  this  structure 
the  principle  of  the  arch  was  employed,  which  was  in  use  in  other 
parts  of  Italy  also  at  this  early  period.^     These  sewers  are  still  in 

1  Until  this  time  ]\Iinerva,  the  goddess  of  memory  or  mind,  does  not  seem 
to  have  been  one  of  the  chief  deities. 

2  The  foundations  of  this  building  have  been  recently  discovered.  As  this 
temple  was  the  central  seat  of  the  Roman  religion  and  nationality,  and  was 
frequently  used  for  meetings  of  the  Senate,  the  name  capital  has  come  to  be 
applied  very  generally  to  buildings  which  are  the  seat  of  government.  Thus 
Shakespeare  makes  Julius  Caesar  assassinated  in  the  Capitol.  But  the  Roman 
capitol  did  not  correspond  in  any  respect  with  the  capitol  at  Washington, 
except  in  these  occasional  sessions  of  the  Senate. 

^  The  round  arch,  with  its  extension  into  the  vault  and  dome,  is,  as  we  shall 
see,  the  distinctive  feature  of  ancient  Italian  architecture.  The  Greeks  em- 
ployed horizontal  beams  resting  upon  columns;  the  pointed  arch  is  the 
characteristic  feature  of  the  architecture  of  the  middle  ages.  See  the  arched 
gateway  of  Volaterra.^,  p.  8. 


THE  REFORMED    CONSTITUTION. 


31 


use.  Thirdly,  the  city  walls,  which  were  now  for  the  first  time 
made  to  include  both  the  Sabine  and  the  Roman  towns  (p.  i6), 
as  well  as  the  Aventine,  an  extensive  hill  at  this  time  uninhabited, 
but  afterwards  assigned  to  the  plebeians,  and  the  fortified  hill, 
Janiculum,  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  river.  These  walls  were 
the  work  of  Servius  TuUius,  the  greatest  king  of  this  dynasty, 
although,  according  to  a  tradition,  a  usurper. 


THE  CAPITOLINE  AND  CLOACA   MAXIMA.     A  RESTORATION. 


3.  The  Reforms  of  Servius  TuUius.  —  The  extension  of  civil 
rights  to  the  plebeians  was  also  the  work  of  this  king,  although  the 
elder  Tarquin  is  said  to  have  planned  some  such  reform,  but  to 
have  been  prevented  by  religious  obstacles.  The  idea  of  the  con- 
stitution of  Servius  Tullius,  as  it  is  called,  was  perhaps  borrowed 
from  the  Greeks,  for  it  is  in  many  features  the  same  as 
that  of  Solon,  estabhshed  in  Athens  a  few  years  before  B.C.  594. 
the  traditionary  date  of  Servius  Tullius.  The  principle 
of  the  reform  is  what  is  known  as  timocracy,  according  to  which  the 


11 


\u^of^>^^^ 


32  THE    TAR  QUINS. 

power  is  lodged  in  the  hands  of  the  rich,  instead  of  those  of  high 
birth.  By  the  patrician  constitution,  the  members  of  the  original 
families  possessed  all  the  power  in  the  state  :  by  the  timocratic 
reforms  of  Servius  Tullius  a  certain  preponderance  was  given  to 

,    the  richest  citizens. 

1^-  The  Classes  and  Centuries.  — The  original  object  of  this  reform 
was  to  increase  the  military  force  of  the  city,  and  to  equalize  the 
public  burdens,  by  imposing  military  service  upon  all  owners  of 
land  {locupletes) ,  whereas  these  had  before  rested  upon  the  patri- 
cians alone.  The  reform  applied,  therefore,  only  to  the  rural  ple- 
beians, or  free  peasants,  not  to  the  clients  or  to  the  city  plebs. 
For  this  purpose  the  landowners  (patricians  and  plebeians  alike) 
were  divided  into  five  "  classes,"  according  to  the  amount  of  their 
landed  property,  and  each  of  these  classes  again  was  divided  into 
a  number  of  "  centuries."  The  centuries  of  each  class  were  in  two 
equal  groups  :  the  juniores,  containing  the  citizens  of  military  age 
(below  forty-six),  and  the  se?iiores,  composed  of  those  above  the 

I    age  of  active  service. 

/  Military  Service.  —  Military  service  was  an  exclusive  privilege 
of  citizens,  as  is  the  case  in  all  early  communities :  therefore  the 
admission  of  the  plebeians  to  miUtary  service  was  in  effect  to  rec- 

[__ognize  them  as  citizens,  although  not  fully  qualified  citizens.  From 
this  the  right  to  vote  followed  necessarily,  although  not  at  once. 
Each  soldier  equipped  and  provided  himself  at  his  own  expense, 
and  the  armor  and  equipment  of  each  class  was  more  complete 
and  costly  than  that  of  the  class  next  below.^     Besides  the  one 

1  The  centuriate  organization  was  as  follows : 

First  class  :  40  centuries  each  of  active  and  reserve    .     .  80 

18  centuries  of  cavalry 18 

Second,  third,  and  fourth  classes,  20  centuries  each    .     .  60 
Fifth  class,  30  ;   mechanics,  musicians,  etc.,  5    .     .     .     .35 

193 
The  three  first  classes  were  heavy-armed,  and  composed  the  phalanx :  the 
first  class   (with  leather  helmet,  round  shield  {clipeus),  breastplate,  greaves, 
spear,  and  sword)   composing  four  ranks  ;    the  second  class  (omitting  the 


THE    CENTURIES  AND    TRIBES.  33 

hundred  and  seventy  centuries  of  infantry,  there  were  also  eigh- 
teen centuries  of  cavalry,  composed  of  young  men  of  the  first 
class,  who  received  a  horse,  and  provision  for  its  keeping,  from  the 
state  {equites  equo  publico) .  These  centuries,  like  those  of  the 
infantry,  were  open  to  patricians  and  plebeians  alike ;  but  it  is 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  this  privileged  service  was  practically 
confined  to  the  patricians.  As  these  eighteen  centuries,  when 
added  to  the  eighty  centuries  of  infantry  of  the  first  class,  made  a 
majority  of  the  whole  number  of  centuries,  it  is  easy  to  see  that, 
when  the  centuries  were  used  as  a  voting  organization,  the  first^ 
Glass  was  able  to  outvote  all  the  others.  The  smiths,  carpenters, 
musicians,  and  citizens  below  the  rating  of  the  fifth  class  made  five 
additional  centuries. 

The  Local  Tribes.  —  Servius  Tullius  also  divided  the  city  into — ' 
four  districts,  called  "tribes,"^  for  administrative  and  financial 
purposes.  The  names  of  these  —  Suburana,  Palatina,  Esquilina, 
and  Collina  —  were  derived  from  those  of  the  principal  hills  of 
the  city,  and  the  valley  between.  The  territory  outside  of  the 
city  walls  also  fell  into  a  number  of  smaller  districts  (ypagi) ,  whicli 
were  afterwards  formed  into  sixteen  so-called  "  rural "  tribes  ;  and 
in  the  course  of  time  the  whole  number  of  tribes  was  brought  to 
thirty-five.^  These  tribes  were  made  the  basis  for  the  military  levy, 
each  furnishing  an  equal  number  of  men  to  each  century  of  the 
army.  From  the  tribes  also  was  levied  a  land-tax,  tributum,  when 
required  by  the  exigencies  of  the  state,  to  be  repaid  when  the 
treasury  should  be  full. 

breastplate)  and  the  third  (omitting  also  the  greaves)  composing  one  rank 
each.  Behind  these  stood  the  fourth  class,  armed  with  spear  and  darts,  and 
the  fifth,  who  had  nothing  but  slings. 

1  The  tribes  of  Servius  Tullius,  in  their  origin  purely  territorial,  must  not 
be  confounded  with  the  three  patrician  tribes,  which  were  primarily  divisions 
of  the  people,  although  each  tribe  was  resident  in  a  definite  district. 

2  It  is  Mommsen's  view  that  the  rural  districts  were  formed  into  tribes  at 
the  time  that  the  land  was  made  private  property;  ownership  in  severalty  be- 
ing at  first  confined,  as  in  the  German  village  communities,  to  the  homestead, 
while  the  cultivated  fields  were  held  in  common. 


34  THE    TAR  QUINS. 

The  Comitia  Centuriata.  — Servius  Tullius  did  not  interfere  with 
the  patrician  institutions,  —  the  three  tribes,  the  curies,  and  the 
coniitia  curiata;  the  new  arrangement  was  only  for  mihtary  pur- 
poses. But  those  that  support  the  state  with  their  contributions, 
and  defend  it  with  their  blood,  cannot  be  prevented  from  having  a 
voice  in  its  management ;  and  in  the  course  of  time  the  custom 
grew  up  of  summoning  all  the  citizens,  instead  of  the  patricians 
alone,  to  vote  on  public  questions.  For  this  purpose  the  organ- 
ization by  centuries  was  well  suited,  and  the  assembly  thus  organ- 
ized was  called  comitia  cejituriata.  We  cannot  tell  certainly 
whether  this  assembly  was  used  under  the  monarchy,  but  during 
j__the  republic  it  was  the  regular  organ  of  public  action. 

The  Relation  of  Rome  to  Latium.  —  In  the  reign  of  Servius 
Tullius  a  temple  of  Diana  was  built  upon  Mount  Aventine,  as  a 
common  sanctuary  for  Romans  and  Latins.  The  Aventine  was  at 
this  time  unoc-cupied,  and  although  it  was  within  the  walls  of  the 
city,  like  the  Capitoline  or  citadel,  it  was  not  included  in 
B.C.  456.  either  of  the  four  city  tribes  ;  it  was  afterwards  assigned 
to  the  plebeians  for  their  special  residence.  The  regula- 
tions for  the  festival  and  markets  held  at  this  temple,  and  the 
treaties  with  the  cities  which  combined  to  build  it,  were  carved  in 
Greek  letters  upon  a  bronze  pillar  set  up  in  the  temple  ;  this  pillar 
was  still  in  existence  at  the  close  of  the  republic.  That  this  temple 
was  erected  in  Rome  shows  that  this  city  was  now  regarded  as  the 
head  of  the  Latin  nationahty.  Tarquin  the  Proud  established  a 
still  more  complete  authority  over  the  whole  of  Latium ;  but  it 
was  the  personal  dominion  of  the  king,  not  an  enlargement  of  the 
power  and  territory  of  the  city,  and  when  the  kingly  power  was 
overthrown,  the  empire  over  Latium  was  lost. 

Conquests  of  Tarquin  the  Proud.  —  The  only  permanent  acqui- 
sition of  territory  made  by  the  city  under  the  Tarquins,  was  that  of 
the  neighboring  city  of  Gabii,  which  entered  into  a  treaty  with  Tar- 
quin the  Proud  by  which  its  citizens  became  Roman  citizens,  and  its 
territory  a  part  of  the  ager  Romaiitis,  while  the  city  still  continued 
to  govern  itself  in  local  concerns.   This  treaty  too  was  in  existence 


ESTABLISHMENT   OF   THE  REPUBLIC.  35 

at  the  Christian  era,  inscribed  upon  an  ox-hide  stretched  over  a 
wooden  shield.  Two  colonies  were  also  planted  by  this  king  as  mili- 
tary posts  in  the  furthest  part  of  Latium  —  Circeii  upon  the  coast, 
and  Signia  on  a  spur  of  the  Volscian  mountains,  commanding  the 
valley  of  the  Trerus ;  but  authority  over  both  was  lost  when  the 
Latins  regained  their  independence,  at  the  expulsion  of  the  Tarquins. 

The  Republic.  — The  revolution  by  which  the  kingly  office  was  * 
abohshed  is  placed  by  tradition  in  the  year  B.C.  509.  But  the 
chronicles  of  these  years  are  so  confused  and  incomplete,  that  all 
we  can  say  with  certainty  is  that  it  took  place  at  about  the  end  of  , 
the  sixth  century  before  Christ.  The  Romans  were  acquainted 
with  the  art  of  writing  at  this  epoch,  as  is  shown  by  the  two  treaties 
mentioned  in  the  last  section ;  there  was  also  a  commercial  treaty 
with  Carthage,  made  in  the  first  year  of  the  republic,  and  extant  in 
the  later  republic,  which  illustrates  the  commercial  importance  of 
Rome  at  this  time.^  But  although  the  Romans  possessed  the  art 
of  writing,  they  do  not  appear  to  have  kept  a  regular  chronicle  of 
events  until  the  time  of  the  republic,  and  even  then  the  records  for 
a  long  time  consisted  of  hardly  more  than  lists  of  magistrates,  bat- 
tles and  triumphs,  disasters  and  portents. 

"War  with  the  Etruscans.  —  The  revolution  which  overthrew  the 
monarchy  led  to  a  war  with  the  Etruscans  and  Latins,  which, 
according  to  the  account,  lasted  fourteen  years,  and  brought 
Rome  to  the  verge  of  destruction.  Lars  Porsena,  king  of  Clusium 
—  at  this  time  the  leading  Etruscan  city,  —  gained  a  decisive  vic- 
tory, and  compelled  the  Romans  to  an  ignominious  peace,  by 
which  they  ceded  a  considerable  tract  of  territory  to  the  Etruscan 
city  of  Veii,  gave  up  their  weapons,  and  agreed  in  future  to  use  no 
iron  except  for  purposes  of  agriculture.^     The  Romans  would  not, 

1  The  date  of  the  several  treaties  with  Carthage  is  subject  to  great  contro- 
versy, the  two  highest  authorities,  Polybius  and  Diodorus,  being  directly  in 
contradiction  with  each  other;  but  I  cannot  see  sufficient  reason  to  reject  with 
Mommsen  the  express  statement  of  Polybius  in  relation  to  a  document  which 
he  had  probably  seen  with  his  own  eyes. 

-  An  agreement  similar  in  object  to  those  by  which  modern  nations  bind 
themselves  to  dismantle  their  fortfesses. 


36  THE    TAR  QUINS. 

however,  consent  to  receive  back  the  Tarquins,  and  the  banished 
family  remained  in  exile  ;  the  tomb  of  the  family  was  discovered  a 
few  years  ago  in  the  Etruscan  city  of  Caere.  The  war  was  at  last 
ended  by  the  decisive  victory  of  the  Romans  at  Lake 
B.C.  496.  Regillus  ;  by  this  the  independence  of  the  Roman  repub- 
hc  was  secured. 

Greek  Influence.  —  It  was  a  tradition  among  the  Romans  that 
the  battle  of  Lake  Regillus  was  saved  to  them  by  the  aid  of  the 
Greek  gods  Castor  and  Pollux,  and  that  these  gods  brought  to 
the  city  the  first  tidings  of  the  victory.  In  gratitude  for  this  assist- 
ance they  built  a  temple  to  Castor  and  Pollux  on  the  spot,  near 
the  temple  of  Vesta,  where  they  had  made  their  appearance.^  This 
is  only  one  out  of  a  number  of  evidences  of  an  early  and  active 
intercourse  of  the  Romans  with  the  Greeks  of  Magna  Grsecia  and 
Sicily.  The  Roman  alphabet  is  derived  from  that  of  the  Greeks, 
and  the  method  of  reckoning  time  and  the  system  of  weights  and 
measures  were  modified  by  intercourse  with  the  Greeks.  We 
have  seen  too  that  the  institutions  of  Servius  Tullius  bore  a  Greek 
stamp,  and  we  shall  find  strong  indications  of  the  same  influence 
in  the  decemviral  legislation. 

The  Sibylline  Books. — Still  more  important,  as  an  agency  in 
introducing  Greek  forms  of  worship,  was  the  purchase  of  the 
Sibylline  books  by  Tarquin  the  Proud,  and  the  appointment  of 
a  special  "college"  or  board  of  priests  to  take  charge  of  them. 
These  books  were  in  Greek,  and  contained  prophecies  in  reference 
to  Rome.  The  commissioners  who  had  charge  of  them  (known 
afterwards  as  the  "Board  of  Fifteen  in  charge  of  sacred  rites," 
Quindecimviri  sacris  faciiindis) ,  consulted  these  books  in  times  of 
public  danger  or  embarrassment,  and  by  their  direction  many 
Greek  forms  of  worship  were  from  time  to  time  introduced  into 
Rome. 
^     Etruscan  Influence.  —  But  while  the  Greek  influence  upon  the 

1  Three  columns  are  still  standing  of  the  Temple  of  Castor.  They  mark 
the  spot  of  the  original  temple,  but  themselves  belong  to  a  later  edifice,  built 
in  the  time  of  the  empire.  , 


ETRUSCAN-  mpLUENCE.  37 

civilization  of  the  Romans  was  early  and  powerful,  that  of  the 
Etruscans  does  not  appear  to  have  been  very  marked.  The  Etrus- 
cans were  nearer  than  the  Greeks,  and  they  were  the  richest  and 
most  powerful  people  of  Italy.  But  they  were  of  wholly  foreign 
race,  while  the  Greeks  were  a  people  nearly  related  to  the  Romans. 
The  trappings  and  ceremonial  of  royalty :  the  lictors  with  their 
axes  and  bundles  of  rods  {fasces),  the  purple  robe,  and  the  cu- 
rule  chair,  were  introduced  into  Rome  by  the  Etruscan  kings,  and 
these  were  retained  by  the  chief  magistrates  of  the  republic. 

Public  Works.  —  The  great  buildings  and  other  public  works 
of  the  Tarquinian  period  were  constructed,  it  is  true,  by  the  forced 
labor  of  the  poorer  citizens,  but  under  the  direction  of  Etruscan 
architects  and  builders.  The  name  of  a  street  opening  into  the 
Forum,  Vicus  Tuscus,  is  evidence  of  an  Etruscan  settlement,  prob- 
ably made  at  this  time.  As  it  led  through  a  low  and  marshy  quar- 
ter, it  cannot  have  been  occupied  by  the  upper  classes ;  but  was 
probably  the  residence  of  Etruscan  workmen.  The  era  of  great 
public  works  came  suddenly  to  an  end  with  the  expulsion  of  the 
Etruscan  dynasty  of  kings,  and  it  is  many  a  year  before  we  meet 
with  a  renewed  activity  in  this  line.  Even  in  buildings,  therefore, 
the  Etruscan  influence  was  not  permanent ;  and  in  the  language, 
religion,  and  institutions  of  the  early  Romans,  we  find  few  traces 
of  any  foreign  influence  except  that  of  the  Greeks. 


PERIOD    II.  — THE    EARLY    REPUBLIC. 

CHAPTER    IV. 

SOCIAL  CONTROVERSIES. 

I.   The  Tribunate  of  the  Plebs. 

n*-  The  Mag^istrates.  —  The  government  established  at  Rome,  after 
the  expulsion  of  the  kings,  was  an  aristocratic  republic,  in  which 
the  controlling  power  was  in  the  hands  of  the  patricians.  Two 
consuls  were  elected  every  year  as  chief  magistrates,  and  these 
consuls  must  be  patricians.  These  magistrates  exercised  the  full 
powers  of  the  kmg,  only  that  they  were  obliged  to  allow  an  appeal 
to  be  taken  from  their  decisions  in  criminal  cases,^  to  the  assembly 
of  the  people  :  in  this  way  it  came  about  that  the  Assembly  became 
the  supreme  criminal  court.  This  was,  however,  only  within  the 
limits  of  the  city,  and,  as  a  symbol  of  this  limitation  of  their 
power,  the  axes  were  within  these  limits  removed  from  the  bundles 
of  rods  carried  by  their  attendants,  the  lictors  :  beyond  these 
limits  the  axes  were  replaced  in  the  fasces,  and  the  consuls  re- 
sumed their  full  authority.  In  times  of  great  public  danger  either 
of  the  consuls  could  appoint  a  dictator,  who,  for  a  term  of  six 
months,  exercised  the  full  and  unlimited  power  of  king ;  and  he, 

J     ^too,  must  be  a  patrician. 

•  V^The  Assemblies.  —  But  although  the  patricians  kept  the  sub- 
stance of  power  in  their  own  hands,  they  could  not  undo  the  work 
of  Servius  Tullius,  who  had  incorporated  the  plebeians  in  the 
L^military  force  ;  neither  would  it  have  been  safe  to  attempt  to  carry 

1  "  Where  sentence  of  capital  or  corporal  punishment  had  been  pronounced 
otherwise  than  by  martial  law, —  a  regulation  which  by  a  later  law  (of  uncer- 
tain date,  l)ut  passed  before  451)  was  extended  to  heavy  tines."  —  Mum.msen. 


INSTITUTIONS   OF   THE   REPUBLIC.  39 

on  the  new  republic  without  the  aid  of  the  plebeians.  They  there- 
fore took  the  assembly  of  centuries,  the  comitia  centuriata,  in 
which  patricians  and  plebeians  voted  on  an  equality,  and  made  it 
the  regular  organ  of  popular  action,  the  "great  assembly."  This 
assembly  received  the  power  to  elect  magistrates,  make  laws, 
declare  war,  and  pass  judgment  in  criminal  cases.  It  must  not  be 
supposed,  however,  that  the  plebeians  were  fully  on  an  equality  with 
the  patricians  even  in  this  assembly.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
the  first  class,  composed  of  the  richest  citizens,  could  outvote  all 
the  rest.  Now  the  patricians  were,  with  hardly  an  exception,  rich, 
while  the  plebeians  were  mostly  poor.  The  patricians  therefore  . 
really  controlled  the  votes  of  the  assembly.  >  The  old  assembly  by 
curies  was  not  abolished,  but  became  now  entirely  unimportant. 

The  Senate.  — Another  privilege  granted  to  the  plebeians  was  — 
that  some  of  their  leading  men  —  the  richest  among  the  rural  ple- 
beians —  were  allowed  to  sit  in  the  Senate,  but  without  the  right  to 
debate,  and  with  powers  inferior  to  those  of  the  patrician  members 
of  the  Senate.^  Out  of  this  there  grew  up  an  aristocracy  among 
the  plebeians,  which  in  the  course  of  time  associated  itself  with  ^ 
the  patrician  aristocracy,  and  formed  a  new  nobility. 

Civil  Dissensions.  —  Hardly  were  the  wars  at  an  end  which 
established  the  independence  of  the  republic,  when  we  find  the 
Roman  people  in  a  condition  of  extreme  distress  and  destitution, 
and  torn  by  dissensions.  We  have  seen  (p.  35)  that  the  revolution 
which  expelled  the  Tarquins  also  brought  to  an  end  the  domination 
which  they  had  estabHshed  over  the  Latin  cities ;  for  a  hundred 
years  after  this  time  the  Romans  were  engaged  in  a  constant 
struggle  to  regain  this  lost  ascendancy.  At  the  same  time  the 
commerce,  which  had  been  the  foundation  of  their  power,  was  cut 
off,  or  at  least  seriously  crippled  :  it  is  long  before  Roman  com- 
merce revived,  and  it  never  again  became  relatively  as  important 
as  it  appears  to  have  been  in  the  early  patrician  state.^     From  this 

1  The  auspices,  with  the  right  to  cancel  the  action  of  the  comitia,  and  to 
assume  power  in  an  interregnum  (p.  20),  belonged  to  the  patrician  senators  alone. 

2  In  the  later  republic  senators  were  prohibited  by  law  from  engaging  in 
commerce. 


40  SOCIAL    CONTROVERSIES. 

time  the  Romans  were  an  essentially  military  people.  Now  when 
we  consider  that,  besides  the  loss  of  empire  and  of  commercial 
preponderance,  they  had  seen  their  land  laid  waste  and  their 
property  destroyed  by  the  ravages  of  war,  and  that  the  burden  of 
incessant  military  service  forced  them  to  neglect  the  cultivation  of 
their  fields,  we  find  it  easy  to  understand  how  there  followed  a 
degree  of  impoverishment  and  distress  which  caused  social  con- 
vulsions of  the  most  formidable  character.  It  was  a  condition  of 
things  like  that  which  caused  Shay's  rebellion  after  the  American 
Revolution. 
r  Sufferings  of  the  Poorer  Classes.  —  These  calamities  fell  prin- 
cipally upon  the  poorer  classes,  and  as  the  poorer  classes  were  all 
plebeians,  while  the  patricians  were  a  wealthy  aristocracy,  the  dis- 
turbances which  followed  are  usually  spoken  of  as  if  they  arose  out 
of  the  political  disqualifications  of  the  plebeians.  But  as  a  matter 
of  fact  they  had  very  little  to  do  with  these  political  disqualifica- 
tions, or  with  the  great  struggle  between  patricians  and  plebeians, 
which  began  a  generation  later.  The  plebeians  were  peasants, 
and  there  were  among  them  rich  peasants,  who,  as  we  have  seen 
(p.  39),  were  admitted  to  the  Senate,  and  thus  in  part  associated 
with  the  governing  class.  It  was  the  poor  among  the  plebeians 
—  that  is,  the  small  peasants,  owners  of  little  freeholds,  which 
they  cultivated  with  their  own  hands  —  upon  whom  the  burden 
fell.  The  condition  of  the  poor  was  a  hard  one  at  any  rate, 
because  the  times  were  hard ;  but  now  the  distress  of  the  hard 
times  was  brought  to  a  crisis  by  the  harsh  and  abusive  execution 
I  of  the  laws  by  the  magistrates. 
^^  ^  A  Characteristic  Incident  of  the  Times.  —  There  were  two 
ways  in  which  the  poor  peasants  were  exposed  to  abuses  on  the 
part  of  the  magistrates  :  in  the  requisition  of  military  service,  and 
l_  in  the  enforcement  of  the  law  of  debt.  ^Both  of  these  abuses  find 
illustration  in  an  incident  which,  whether  historically  true  or  not, 
depicts  accurately  the  condition  of  the  peasants.  "  An  old  man, 
dressed  in  rags,  with  long  tangled  hair  and  beard,  screaming  and 
calhng  for  help,  rushed  into  the  market-place.     The  crowd  having 


THE  LAWS   OF  DEBT.  41 

gathered  around  him,  he  stood  in  full  sight,  and  said  :  '  I  was  born 
free ;  I  served  my  full  time  in  my  youth,  fought  in  twenty-eight 
batdes,  and  often  received  testimonials  of  bravery  in  the  wars ; 
but  in  the  troublous  times  which  came  upon  the  city  I  was  obliged 
to  incur  debt,  in  order  to  pay  the  taxes  which  were  levied  upon 
me,  because  my  fields  had  been  laid  waste  and  my  property  con- 
sumed in  the  hard  times.  Then  when  I  could  not  pay  my  debt, 
I  was  seized  as  a  slave  by  my  creditor,  with  my  two  sons ;  my 
master  laying  hard  tasks  upon  me,  which  I  refused  to  perform, 
I  was  beaten  with  many  stripes.'  At  the  same  time  he  showed 
his  breast  marked  with  scars,  and  his  back  covered  with  blood."  ^       _^ 

The  Condition  of  the  Debtors.  —  The  treatment  inflicted  upon  -— 
this  man  was  wholly  within  the  lawful  powers  of  creditors  towards 
delinquent  debtors.  They  even  had  the  right,  when  there  were 
several  creditors,  to  cut  the  debtor  in  pieces,  and  each  take  a  share 
proportioned  to  his  debt.'  They  did  not  have  these  powers,  how- 
ever, until  after  a  formal  judgment  by  the  consul.  This  harsh  law 
of  debt,  giving  the  creditor  absolute  power  over  the  body  of  the 
debtor,  is  found  in  other  early  nations,^  but  was  nowhere  so  severe 
as  in  Rome.  In  Athens,  just  a  hundred  years  before  this  time,  the 
evil  had  reached  such  a  height  that  the  great  statesman,  Solon,  was 
appointed  commissioner,  with  extraordinary  authority,  to  devise 
some  remedy  for  it.  Solon  wisely  abolished  the  law  which  gave 
the  creditor  this  power;  but  the  Romans  had  not  the  foresight 
to  do  this,  and  the  laws  of  debt  continued  to  be  a  source  of  con- 
tention and  abuses  for  nearly  two  hundred  years."* 

Importance  of  this  Question  in  Roman  History.  —  We  shall 
better  understand  the  importance  of  this  question  in  Roman  his- 
tory if  we  bear  in  mind  that  Rome,  like  Athens,  was  an  active 

1  Dion.  Hal.,  vi.  26.     The  same  story  is  related  by  Livy,  ii.  23. 

2  "  Cut  him  to  pieces  like  a  butcher,"  Dio  says  ;  but  he  adds  that  this  right 
was  never  exercised  as  a  matter  of  fact.  Before  judgment  the  debtor  was 
known  as  nexus,  after  judgment  as  addictiis. 

3  See,  for  example,  2  Kings  iv.  i. 

*  Their  worst  features  were  abolished  B.C.  326, 


42  SOCIAL    CONTROVERSIES. 

commercial  city,  and  that  its  commercial  prosperity  had  been 
greatly  impaired  by  the  disturbed  condition  of  things  at  the 
establishment  of  the  republic.  The  law  of  debt  could  not  work 
much  harm  so  long  as  the  Romans  were  a  simple  community  of 
peasants,  or  so  long  as  they  enjoyed  the  brilliant  prosperity  which 
was  brought  in  by  foreign  commerce.  But  with  the  crippling  of 
this  commerce  all  classes  in  the  community  were  cramped  in  their 
resources ;  and  the  peasants  were  the  ones,  as  is  always  the  case, 
who  felt  it  first  and  most  severely. 
^  Military  Service.  —  The  plebeians  were  not  only  the  sufferers 
from  the  law  of  debt :  they  were  the  ones  upon  whom  fell  the 
chief  burdens  of  military  service.  In  all  countries  it  is  the  peas- 
ants who  form  the  rank  and  file  of  the  army.  The  plebeians  stood, 
it  is  true,  nominally  upon  an  equality  with  the  patricians  in  this 
respect,  since  the  levy  for  the  army  was  made  from  the  classes 
and  centuries  (p.  32),  which  consisted  of  both  orders  alike.  But 
'the  levy  for  each  year  was  made  at  the  discretion  of  the  consuls, 
I  and  as  a  matter  of  course  fell  chiefly  upon  the  plebeians.  /  The 
patrician  young  men  served  in  the  cavalry,  while  the  old  men  were 
in  the  centuries  of  reserves.  It  is  mentioned  as  an  unusual  thing, 
that  a  certain  patrician  served  on  foot  in  the  legion.^ 
r-  The  Powers  of  the  Magistrates.  —  In  two  ways,  therefore,  the 
peasants  were  subject  to  abuses  of  authority  by  the  consul.  First, 
in  the  conscription  for  the  year  he  had  it  in  his  power  to  be  harsh 
or  considerate,  fair  or  unfair.  Cases  are  often  mentioned  of 
plebeians  who  were  forced  into  the  army  when  they  had  already 
rendered  all  the  military  service  that  was  due  from  them,  or  were 
obliged  to  serve  in  the  ranks  when  they  had  a  right  to  a  higher 
position.  Secondly,  it  was  the  consul  who,  in  the  exercise  of  his 
judicial  powers,  decided  the  cases  of  delinquent  debtors ;  and 
here,  too,  a  severe  magistrate  would  hold  strictly  to  the  letter  of 
the  law,  while  one  of  kindly  disposition  was  able  to  temper  justice 
\_with  mercy.  >  It  is  related  that  at  this  very  time  a  dictator  who 
tried  to  administer  justice  mercifully,  found  himself  so  thwarted 
1  Livy,  iii.  27. 


THE  SECESSION  OF  THE  PLEBS.  43 

by  the  relentless  temper  of  the  creditors,  that  he  abdicated  his 
office,  rather  than  lend  himself  to  its  abuse. ^  The  poor  plebeians 
could  not  look  for  aid  to  the  wealthier  members  of  their  own 
order,  because  the  magistrates  were  exclusively  patricians,  while 
the  creditors  were  those  members  of  the  patrician  order  who  had 
made  themselves  rich  by  commerce. 

The  First  Secession  of  the  Plebs.  —  Soon  matters  came  to  a  ~? 
crisis.     The  Latin  war  had  been  ended  by  the  battle  of 
Lake  Regillus,  and  Latins  and  Romans  alike  were  en-    B.C.  496. 
gaged  in  a  war  with  the  Sabines,  ^quians,  and  Volscians. 
The  plebeians   composing  the  army  seized  this  oppor-     B.C.  494. 
tunity  for  vindicating  their  rights.     They  marched  out 
of  the  city  to  a  hill  about  three  miles  distant,  just  beyond  the 
river  Anio,  and  encamped  there,  refusing  to  fight  the  battles  of 
the  patricians  until  their  wrongs  should  be  redressed.     This  is 
known  as  the  First  Secession  of  the  Plebs,  and  the  hill  which  they 
occupied  was  thereafter  called    the   Sacred  Mount.     There   was 
talk  among  them  of  never  returning  to  Rome,  but  of  sending  for 
their  wives  and  children,  and  building  a  new  city  upon  this  spot. 
This  would  have  been  a  fatal  blow  to  the  prosperity  of  the  city, 
for  the  plebeians  were  the  tillers  of  the  soil  and  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  army,  and  could  not  be  spared.     The  patricians  therefore 
offered  a  compromise,  which  was  accepted  after  some  hesitation. 
No  change  was  made  in  the  laws.     Those  suffering  from  debt  or     , 
its  consequences  were  reheved  for  the  present ;  and  for  the  future 
a  novel  guaranty  was  offered  them  against  the  abuses  of  the  law. 

The  Tribunate  of  the  Plebs.  —  This  guaranty  was  the  right  to 
appoint  officers  from  their  own  number,  called  tribunes,  to  protect 
them  against  abuses  at  the  hands  of  the  magistrates.  These  abuses, 
it  will  be  remembered,  were  of  two  kinds  :  the  unjust  imposition  of 
military  duties  and  the  harsh  execution  of  the  laws  of  debt.  As  it 
was  only  the  acts  of  magistrates  which  were  subjects  of  complaint, 
the  remedy  consisted  in  allowing  the  newly  appointed  tribunes  to 
interfere  and  prevent  such  acts.     This  power  of  the  tribunes  was    , 

iLivy,  ii.  31. 


44  SOCIAL    CONTROVERSIES. 

r 

called  yV/j-  auxili,  "power  of  assistance."     The  tribunes  were  at 

first  two  in  number,  then  five,  and  afterwards  ten.  Whenever  the 
consul,  or  his  assistant,  the  quaestor,  undertook  to  enforce  the 
law  of  debt  with  undue  severity,  or  to  compel  a  citizen  to  serve  in 
the  army  when  no  service  was  due  from  him,  or  in  any  other  way 
to  treat  him  unjustly  or  oppressively,  the  tribunes  had  the  right 
absolutely  to  nullify  this  action.  This  power  of  protection  was 
extended  to  patricians  as  well  as  plebeians.^  In  order  to  ensure  its 
free  exercise,  the  persons  of  the  tribunes  were  made  sacred ;  the 
whole  people  bound  themselves  by  oath  to  protect  them  in  the 
exercise  of  their  office,  and  any  one  who  violated  this  sanctity  was 

j^  outlawed  and  could  lawfully  be  put  to  death. 
"-  The  Plebeian  Assembly.  —  Besides  the  jus  auxili,  or  power  to 
protect  against  abuses  of  magisterial  authority,  the  tribunes  had 
the  right  to  call  meetings  of  the  plebeians,  in  order  to  take  action 
in  matters  which  concerned  their  collective  interests.  By  the 
establishment  of  this  assembly,  presided  over  by  the  tribunes,  the 
Plebs  became  a  separate  organized  body,  a  state  within  the  state. 
It  elected  its  own  officers,  managed  its  own  collective  concerns, 
punished  the  misdemeanors  of  its  members,  and  very  soon  found 
itself,  with   a   compact   organization   and   able   and    determined 

I  leaders,  a  controlling  force  in  the  state. 

11.     The  AGR.4RIAN  Laws. 

f—  The  Triple  Alliance. — The  year  after  the  secession 

B.C.  493,     to  the  Sacred  Mount,  a  treaty  of  alliance  was  made  by 

the  consul  Spurius  Cassius  with  the  Latin  Confederacy, 

B.C.  486.     and  a  few  years  later  the  Confederacy  of  the  Hernicans 

joined  the  league.     The  object  of  this  alliance  was  the 

protection  of  these  three  nations  of  lowlanders  against  the  raids  of 

i_the  Sabine,  ^quian  and  Volscian  mountaineers.     It  continued  in 

force  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,  until  B.C.  338.     By  the 

terms  of  this  treaty  all  three  members  of  the  league  were  on  a 

1  See,  for  an  example,  Livy,  iii.  13. 


THE   LATIN  COLONIES.  45 

footing  of  entire  equality.  They  agreed  to  "  have  peace  with  one 
another  as  long  as  the  heavens  and  the  earth  shall  endure"  ;  they 
were  to  assist  each  other  in  all  defensive  wars,  and  to  divide  booty 
and  spoils  equally.  But  although  the  league  was  in  form  one  of 
equality,  it  was  a  matter  of  course  that  a  rich  and  populous  city 
like  Rome  should  have  the  leadership  or  "hegemony"  over  a 
multitude  of  small  towns,  just  as  Athens  had  done  in  the  case  of 
the  Confederacy  of  Delos ;  and,  just  as  Athens  had  turned  her 
hegemony  into  an  empire,  so  in  like  manner  Rome  soon  came  to 
treat  her  Latin  and  Hernican  allies  as  dependents,  and  at  last  con- 
verted them  into  subjects. 

The  Latin  Confederacy.  —  The  Latin  Confederacy  consisted  at^ 
this  time  of  twelve  or  fifteen  independent  cities,  of  which  Aricia 
was  the  chief,  although  Tusculum  was  the  nearest  and  most  closely 
connected  with  Rome.     Like  Rome,  it  had  at  its  head  two  Prae- 
tors.^    Of  the  Hernicans  there  were  only  five  or  six  cities. 

The  Latin  Colonies.  —  For  the  purpose  of  common  defence  the? 
allied  powers  established  at  this  time  two  military  posts,  Norba 
and  Signia,^  in  strong  positions  upon  the  Volscian  frontier.  These 
towns  were  called  Latin  colonies,  because  the  colonists,  in  case 
they  were  Roman  citizens,  lost  their  Roman  citizenship  by  going 
to  the  colonies,  and  became  Latins,  while  the  towns  themselves 
were  made  members  of  the  Latin  Confederacy.  Each  settler 
received  i^jojiigera  of  land  (about  one  acre),  with  rights  of  pasture, 
etc.,  in  the  common  field.  Thus,  while  belonging  to  a  garrison  of 
soldiers  upon  the  borders  of  a  hostile  land,  the  colonist  was  at  the 
same  time  a  husbandman,  with  a  lot  of  land  and  a  household  of 
his  own.  When  the  Romans  entered  upon  their  great  career  of 
conquest,  about  a  hundred  years  after  this  time,  they  made  use 
of  military  posts  of  this  class,  —  the  Latin  colonies,  —  to  secure 
their  conquests,  establishing  a  number  of  them  after  every  success-_j 

1  The  Roman  magistrates  whom  we  know  as  consuls  were  at  first  called 
prcetors. 

2  The  colony  of  Signia  was  said  to  have  been  founded  by  the  last  Tarquin 
(p-.  35) ;   but  its  possession  was  lost  in  the  early  years  of  the  republic. 


46 


SOCIAL    CONTROVERSIES. 


ful  war.^  The  massive  walls  of  Norba  and  Signia,  the  earliest,  and 
for  many  years  the  only  Latin  colonies/  are  still  in  large  part  pre- 
served.- 


WALLS    OF    SIGNIA 


Spurius  Cassius.  —  Spurius  Cassius,  the  statesman  who  nego- 
tiated both  these  treaties,  with  the  Latins  and  with  the  Hernicans, 
fell  under  the  suspicion  of  aiming  to  make  himself  king, 
B.C.  485.     and  was  put  to  death  for  treason  by  vote  of  the  people. 

1  Circeii  (p.  35),  was  lost  shortly  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Tarquins,  and 
was  not  re-established  until  393. 

2  These  walls  were  probably  standing  long  before  the  founding  of  the 
Roman  colony.  They  are  what  are  known  as  Cyclopean  walls,  built  of  huge 
blocks  of  unhewn  stone,  without  cement.  They  are  sometimes  called  Pelasgic ; 
but  there  is  no  sufficient  evidence  that  the  Pelasgians  were  ever  in  Italy. 


THE  PUBLIC  LANDS.  47 

It  is  not  certain  what  was  the  precise  nature  of  the  charges 
against  him,  but  they  are  represented  as  having  some  connection 
with  the  controversies  about  the  pubHc  lands,  which  began  at  this 
time.  Spurius  Cassius  was  the  first  man  who  proposed  an  agrarian 
law  in  Rome. 

The  Public  Lands.  —  It  was  the  practice  of  the  ancients,  when  -y 
they  had  carried  on  a  war  successfully,  to  punish  the  vanquished 
nation  by  taking  from  it  a  part  of  its  territory,  generally  one-third. 
By  this  policy  the  Romans  had  come  into  possession  of  large 
tracts  of  land,  which  were  the  property  of  the  city,  and  were 
known  as  public  land,  ager  publicus.  This  pubUc  land  of  the 
Romans  may  be  compared  to  the  pubHc  land  of  the  United  States, 
and,  like  that,  it  could  be  sold,  rented,  or  given  as  homesteads  to 
actual  settlers.  If  it  was  sold  or  given  away,  it  ceased  to  be  ager 
publicus,  and  became  ager  privatiis.  But  all  these  methods 
required  that  the  land  should  be  accurately  surveyed  and  regis-^ 
tered;\and  when  the  lands  were  distant,  or  exposed  to  hostile 
raids,  'or  when,  for  any  other  reason,  it  was  not  convenient  to  make 
a  permanent  disposition  of  them,  another  method  was  adopted, 
which  was  convenient  as  a  temporary  arrangement,  but  became 
the  source  of  great  injustice  and  dissensions. 

Occupation. — The  method  in  question  was,  to  allow  it  to  be 
occupied,  under  the  general  supervision  of  the  magistrates,  by  any 
person  who  cared  to  make  use  of  it.  The  occupier  took  as  much 
vacant  land  as  he  pleased,  within  such  natural  limits  as  were  found 
suitable,  very  much  like  an  American  "  squatter,"  only  that  it  was 
done  by  authority  of  law.  For  this  he  paid  to  the  city,  not  a  fixed 
sum  of  money,  as  in  the  case  of  leasehold  land,  but  a  fixed  propor- 
tion of  the  produce  (a  tenth  of  cultivated  land,  a  fifth  of  orchards 
and  vineyards),  or  so  much  a  head  for  cattle  pastured  upon  the 
land.  Land  thus  occupied,  which  was  the  property  of  the  state, 
but  in  the  possession  of  individuals,  was  called  ager  occupatus, 
and  the  tenure  was  0.2^^^  possessio. 

Patrician  Occupation.  —  Only  patricians  were  allowed  to 
occupy  land  in  this  manner,  because  they  alone  were  fully  quali- 


48  SOCIAL    CONTROVERSIES. 

fied  citizens.  The  plebeians  had  been  made  citizens  by  the  laws 
of  Servius  TulHus  (p.  31),  but  they  had  not  yet  the  full  rights  of 
citizenship,  and  were  in  certain  respects  still  regarded  as  foreign- 
ers. ^It  was  not  until  more  than  a  hundred  years  after  this  time, 
^B.c.  367,  that  the  Licinian  Laws  gave  them  the  full  rights  of  citizen- 
I  ship,  and  along  with  these  the  right  to  occupy  the  public  lands. 
Possession  a  New  Form  of  Property.  —  As  the  magistrates,  who 
had  charge  of  the  public  lands,  were  all  patricians,  it  came  about 
that  the  greater  part  of  the  lands  fell  into  the  occupation  of  wealthy 
patricians,  who  added  them  to  their  private  estates,  and  cultivated 
them  by  means  of  their  slaves  and  clients.  The  quaestors,  whose 
business  it  was,  were  slack  in  collecting  the  dues,  and  the  state, 
which  had  the  right  to  resume  the  property,  neglected  to  do  so. 
The  occupiers  had  no  legal  title,  and  could  not  maintain  their  pos- 
session by  any  regular  legal  process ;  but  the  consul  (afterwards 
the  praetor^),  who  administered  the  law  in  civil  cases,  would  always 
protect  them  against  any  third  party ;  and  thus  possession  came 
to  be  a  species  of  legal  estate  almost  as  valid  as  true  ownership. 
The  occupied  lands  were  bought  and  sold,  and  passed  by  inherit- 
ance ;  so  that  at  last  the  possessors  regarded  them  as  to  all  intents 
and  purposes  their  own. 

— .  The  Agrarian  Laws.  —  It  followed  from  this  system  of  occu- 
pation that  there  was  placed  upon  the  plebeians  more  than  their 
share  of  the  public  burdens.  We  have  seen  that  they  formed  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  army,  and  were  the  chief  sufferers  from  the 
invasions  and  raids  of  the  neighboring  nations  (p.  42)  ;  moreover, 
when  a  land-tax  {tributuDi)  was  imposed,  in  order  to  meet  the 
needs  of  war,  it  fell  in  undue  proportion  upon  the  plebeians,  be- 
cause the  "  occupied  "  lands  were  not  subject  to  this  tax.  We  do 
not  hear  of  this  exclusion  from  the  public  lands  as  one  of  the 
grievances  which  led  to  the  secession  of  B.C.  494  ;  but  after  order 
was  restored,  it  appears  to  have  occurred  to  fSpurius  Cassius,  the 
/~most  eminent  statesman  of  his  time,  that  the  public  lands  afforded 

1  The  administration  of  civil  justice  was  transferred  from  the  consuls  to  a 
new  magistrate,  called  prcetor,  by  the  Licinian  laws,  B.C.  367. 


DISTRIBUTIONS   OF  LAND.  49 

a  means  of  remedying  the  evils,  and  preventing  future  I 

distress.  He  brought  forward  a  proposition  that  the  B.C.  486. 
state  should  take  into  its  possession  the  occupied  lands, 
as  it  had  a  right  to  do,  and  parcel  them  out  among  the  poorer 
citizens,  —  a  measure  very  similar  in  its  object  to  our  homestead 
law.  According  to  tradition  it  was  on  the  charge  of  seeking  to 
gain  popularity  with  the  plebeians  by  this  measure,  that  Spurius 
Cassius  was  accused  of  treason.  However  just  and  beneficent  his 
proposition  was,  it  brought  upon  him  the  opposition  and  enmity 
of  his  own  class,  and  was  probably  the  cause  of  his  condemnation 
and  death. 

Distributions  of  Land,  (i)  Colonies.  —  There  were  two  ways  -' 
of  giving  land  to  poor  citizens.  One  was  that  of  establishing 
mihtary  colonies,  which  has  been  already  described  (p.  45).  This 
method  made  provision  for  a  number  of  poor  plebeians,  by  giving 
them  land  and  a  home ;  but  it  required  them  to  move  to  a  dis- 
tance from  their  old  homes,  and  to  give  up  their  Roman  citizen- 
ship and  become  foreigners  (Latins).  This  method  was  therefore 
unacceptable  :  and  at  any  rate  it  was  not  until  a  hundred  years 
after  this  time  that  it  became  common. 

(2)  Assig^nment. — The  other  method  was  to  assign  lots  of  land 
in  full  property  to  individuals  {viritim,  i.e.  "  man  by  man  ")  :  this 
was  known  as  Assignatio.  This  was  the  aim  of  the  agrarian  laws 
of  Spurius  Cassius,  and  it  will  be  easily  understood  that  the  patri- 
cian occupiers  resisted  the  measure  with  the  greatest  determina- 
tion. For  the  present  they  succeeded  in  preventing  its  passage, 
and  the  agrarian  demands  were  not  satisfied  until  Rome  entered 
upon  her  great  career  of  conquest,  about  a  hundred  years  later ; 
then  portions  of  the  conquered  land  were  distributed  by  assign- 
ment, and  a  great  number  of  Latin  colonies  were  established. 

The  Agrarian  Contests.  —  The  contest  upon  the  agrarian  law 
continued  with  the  greatest  bitterness  and  persistency  for  about 
thirty  years,  and  brought  the  city  to  the  verge  of  civil  war.  Tt  was 
indeed  rather  a  contest  between  two  hostile  nations  than  a  contro- 
versy between  two  parties  in  the  same  nation ;  for  the  patricians     . 


50  SOCIAL    CONTROVERSIES. 

'  were  the  only  fully  qualified  Roman  citizens,  and  controlled  the 
magistrates  and  assemblies  of  the  city,  while  the  plebeians  were 
now  an  independently  organized  body,  with  officers  and  assemblies 
of  their  own.  Probably  the  plebeians  were  already  the  strongest  in 
numbers,  even  counting  the  clients  of  the  patrician  clans  as  a 
part  of  the  pa'trician  forces  ;  and  at  any  rate  the  veto  power  of  the 
tribunes,  giving  them  the  right  of  almost  unlimited  obstruction, 
joined  with  their  sacred  character,  which  made  it  sacrilege  to  injure 
or  obstruct  them,  gave  the  plebeians  an  enormous  advantage. 

Usurpation  of  Power  by  the  Tribunes.  —  It  was  easy  for  officers 
in  possession  of  such  privileges  as  those  of  the  tribunes,  to  stretch 
their  right  of  self-protection  into  a  right  of  punishing  any  who 
should  stand  in  their  way.  They  began  to  carry  things  with  a 
high  hand,  and  even  summoned  consuls  before  them,  threatening 
them  with  chastisement  or  death.  On  several  occasions  patricians 
were  heavily  fined  or  driven  into  exile,  and  soon  the  plebeian 
assembly  was  in  practical  possession  of  a  power  not  unlike  that  of 
the  comitia.  This  was,  it  is  true,  a  usurped  and  illegal  power,  — 
an  "  organized  lynch-law  "  it  has  been  called  \  but  the  patricians 

y^vere  unable  to  resist  it.  )>The  dissensions  became  so  violent  that 
it  sometimes  seemed  as  if  the  machinery  of  government  would 
come  to  a  stop.  It  can  be  well  imagined  that  a  city  torn  by 
such  internal  contests  as  these  rapidly  lost  strength  and  energy  in 
military  relations  also. 

Wars  with  Neighboring  Nations.  — All  this  time  the  Romans 
were  harassed  by  a  succession  of  petty  wars  with  the  Sabines, 
^t|uians,  and  Volscians  on  the  south  of  the  Tiber,  and  the  Etrus- 
cans of  Veii  on  the  other  side  of  the  river.  They  were  so  seriously 
weakened  by  the  dissensions  within  the  walls  and  the  loss  of  foreign 
commerce,  that  even  with  the  alliance  of  the  Latins  and  the  Her- 
nicans,  the  contest  often  seemed  hopeless.  The  well-known  story 
of  Coriolanus,  which  belongs  to  this  period,  is  a  lively  illustration 
of  the  civil  discord  of  the  time,  and  the  disasters  resulting  from  it.^ 

1  The  story  of  Coriolanus  has  very  httle  historical  foundation  in  fact,  but 
is  of  great  value  as  a  picture  of  the  times. 


IVA/^S  AND  DISCORDS.  51 

The  Destruction  of  the  Fabian  Gens.  —  Another  incident,  some- 
what later  in  time,  and  better  authenticated,  affords  a  striking 
example,  at  once  of  the  power  and  coherence  of  a  patrician 
class,  and  of  the  spirit  of  heroic  patriotism  that  inspires  its  mem- 
bers. At  one  time,  when  the  city  was  in  great  straits,  in 
the  war  against  Veii,  the  Fabian  gens  offered  to  carry  on  B.C.  479. 
the  war  by  its  own  resources.  This  was  one  of  the 
proudest  and  most  powerful  clans  among  the  Romans,  and  one 
of  the  most  active  in  the  contest  of  the  orders.  Like  the  fol- 
lowers of  a  mediaeval  baron  or  a  Highland  chieftain,  they  gathered, 
three  hundred  and  six  in  number,  ''all  patricians,"  with  three  or 
four  thousand  clients,  and  marched  to  the  attack  of  Veii.  But 
their  strength  was  not  equal  to  their  spirit ;  they  were  taken  in 
ambuscade  and  cut  off  almost  to  a  man.  The  arch  of  the  gate 
by  which  they  had  marched  out,  between  the  Capitoline  and  the 
river,  was  ever  after  regarded  as  unlucky  (called  Porta  Scelerata) . 


52  THE    CONTEST  BETWEEN   THE    ORDERS. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  CONTEST   BETWEEN   THE  ORDERS. 
I.     The  Contest  for  Civil  Rights. 

r"  The  New  Leaders  of  the  Plebeians.  —  In  the  early  repubhc, 
as  we  have  seen,  the  contests  were  social  rather  than  political.  It 
was  the  poor  peasants  that  suffered  from  the  abuses  of  magisterial 
power  in  exacting  military  service  and  executing  the  laws  of  debt, 
and  that  felt  as  a  hardship  the  engrossment  of  the  public  lands  by 
the  patricians.  The  rich  plebeians,  the  better  class  of  peasants, 
had  little  interest  personally  in  these  controversies.  But  they,  no 
less  than  the  poorer  members  of  their  order,  began  to  feel  as  a 
grievance  their  exclusion  from  the  full  rights  of  citizenship,  and 
they  soon  saw  that  they  could  use  the  new  organization,  with  its 
officials  and  assembly,  as  an  instrument  for  the  attainment  of  full 
poUtical  equahty.  The  contest  which  now  ensued  was  carried  on 
with  a  persistency  and  a  far-seeing  sagacity  which  show  these  rural 
plebeians  to  have  been  a  class  possessed  of  high  political  capaci- 
ties. It  lasted  for  more  than  a  hundred  years,  and  ended 
B.C.  367.  with  a  complete  victory,  by  which  they  obtained  a  full 
equality  with  the  patricians  in  all  essential  particulars. 
In  this  contest  the  rich  plebeians  placed  themselves  at  the  head 
of  their  order  as  its  champions  and  leaders. 
^  ^  The  Publilian  Law. —The  first  object  of  the  new  leaders  was  to 
obtain  a  better  organization  of  their  order.  The  assembly  of  the 
plebeians  for  the  first  twenty  years  was  organized  by  curies  (p.  i8); 
for  as  the  curies  were  local  divisions  they  afforded  a  convenient 
basis  for  assemblies  of  the  plebeians  residing  within  their  limits. 
But  in  the  curies  the  clients  of  the  patricians,  and  the  traders  and 
handicraftsmen  of  the  city,  voted  on  an   equality  with  the  free 

I      peasants ;  and  the  patricians  were  able  to  influence  the  action  of 


THE  PUBLILIAN  LAW.  53 

tlie  assembly  through  their  chents.     It  was  resolved,  therefore,  that'' 
in  future  the  plebeian  assembly  should  be  organized  by  the  local 
tribes  (p.  2)i)y  which  had  been  formed  for  the  purposes  of  military 
and  financial  administration,  and  in  which,  therefore,  only  free- 
holders were  taken  into  account.    The  new  Tribal  Assem- 
bly of  the  plebeians  was  established   by  the    so-called     B.C.  471. 
Publilian  Law,^  and  shortly  afterwards  the  number  of  tri- 
bunes was  raised  to  ten.     This  assembly,  with*  its  ten  tribunes, 
became  in  time  one  of  the  most  important  institutions  in  the  state, 
taking  upon  itself  to  pass  ordinances  for  the  whole  body  of  citizens  ; 
while  the  tribunes  stretched  their  veto  power  into  a  right  to  nullify  . 
almost  any  action  of  any  magistrate. 

Disastrous  "Wars.  —  A  few  years  after  the  passage  of  the  Pub- 
lilian Law,  the  patricians  undertook  to  partially  satisfy  the 
agrarian  demands  by  establishing  a  colony  at  Antium,  a  B.C.  467. 
Volscian  town  upon  the  sea-coast,  which  the  fortunes  of 
war  had  just  put  in  their  power.  But  the  colony  was  unpopular 
(see  p.  49),  and  the  city  was  soon  re-conquered  by  the  Volscians. 
Indeed  these  were  years  of  disaster.  The  Volscians  not  only  re- 
conquered Antium,  but  got  possession  of  Velitrae,  on  the  southern 
slope  of  the  Alban  Mount.  The  ^quians,  the  most  active  of  their 
enemies  at  this  period,  gained  even  more  important  advantages. 
They  seized  Mount  Algidus,  the  pass  which  commanded  the  road 
afterwards  known  as  the  Latin  Way,  which  led  from  Rome  to  the 
country  of  the  Hernicans  in  the  valley  of  the  Trerus.  The  triple 
alhance  was  thus  cut  in  two.  The  Hernicans,  as  well  as  the  more 
distant  of  the  Latin  towns,  were  cut  off  from  communication  with 
Rome,  and  this  important  stronghold  served  as  a  base  of  operation 
for  the  /Equians  in  a  succession  of  predatory  raids.  Even  the  great 
Latin  cities  of  Tibur  and  Praeneste,  neighbors  of  the  ^quians,  with- 
drew from  alliance  with  Rome,  and  stood  neutral  in  the  contest. 

1  All  laws  during  the  Roman  Republic  must  be  passed  by  an  assembly  of 
the  people,  upon  the  proposition  of  the  presiding  magistrate,  and  they  took 
the  name  of  the  magistrate  who  proposed  them.  The  law  in  question  was 
proposed  by  the  tribune  Publilius  Volero. 


54  7UIE    CONTEST  BETWEEN   THE    ORDERS. 

Change  of  Policy  by  the  Plebeian  Leaders.— The  agrarian 
agitation  had  now  l)ecn  kept  up  for  nearly  thirty  years  without 
result,  and  the  plebeian  leaders  saw  that  it  was  time  to  change 
their  policy.  From  this  time  on  their  efforts  were  directed  no 
longer  to  secure  a  merely  remedial  measure  which  could  benefit 
only  a  few,  but  to  remove  the  disabilities  under  which  the  entire 
body  of  the  plel^eians  rested,  and  which  were  the  real  source  of 
their  hardships.  ^Vhat  enabled  the  patricians  to  engross  the  public 

t^lands,  was  the  fact  that  they  were  the  only  citizens  with  full  rights  ; 
it  would  be  of  very  little  advantage  to  procure  assignments  of  land 
for  this  man  and  that  man,  so  long  as  the  legal  and  constitutional 

j^relation  of  the  two  orders  was  not  fundamentally  changed.  >  The 
contest  for  the  agrarian  law  was  quietly  dropped,  and  new  and  more 
vital  issues  were  presented.  'The  great  struggle  which  now  began, 

'  and  which  ended,  after  about  a  hundred  years,  in  the  so-called 
"equalization  of  the  orders,"  may  be  divided  into  two  distinct 
periods.  During  the  first  of  these  the  efforts  of  the  plebeians  were 
especially  directed  towards  equality  in  civil  rights ;  in  the  second 
their  aim  was  political  equality. 

"^  The  Terentilian  Rogation.^  —  The  new  contest  began 
B.C.  461.  with  a  proposition  by  the  tribune  Gains  Terentilius  Harsa, 
that  the  laws  should  be  written  down,  or,  as  we  should 
call  it,  codified.  In  all  early  communities  law  is  derived  from 
custom,  and  is  interpreted  by  tradition.  In  Rome  the  custom  upon 
which  law  rested  \vas  of  course  that  of  the  patricians,  the  only 
fully  qualified  citizens,  and  the  tradition  was  that  of  the  patrician 
magistrates.  The  plebeians,  enjoying  only  a  partial  and  incom- 
plete citizenship,  were  subject  to  an  administration  of  law  which 
was  wholly  at  the  discretion  of  the  patrician  magistrates.  ;::'More 
than  this  :  as  the  law  was  ctistoDiaiy  law,  and  had  never  been 

J^vritten  down^the  plebeians  were  judged  bylaws  and  rules  of  pro- 

1  A  proposition  of  law  was  called  a  "  rogation,"  from  rogo,  "  ask,"  because 
the  presiding  magistrate  asked  the  people  if  they  would  order  it  {jubere),  to 
take  effect.  The  Terentilian  rogation  never  became  a  law,  although  the  sub- 
stance of  it  was  adopted. 


THE    TERENTIUAN  ROGATION.  55 

cedure  which  were  not  understood  by  themselves,  and  which  were 
interpreted  and  executed  by  patrician  magistrates.     So  long  as  the^ 
knowledge  and  the  administration  of  the  laws  were  the  exclusive 
possession  of  the  patricians,  there  was  no  security  for  justice,  even 
in  the  simplest  controversies  of  property  and  contract.^ 

Opposition  to  the  Law. — This  demand  for  the  codification  of 
the  laws  seems  to  us  perfectly  fair  and  reasonable ;  but  it  was  a 
blow  struck  at  the  fundamental  institutions  of  the  state,  and  the 
patricians  saw  clearly  that  this  first  step  towards  destroying  their 
exclusive  privileges  would  in  time  necessarily  lead  to  a  radicalj 
revolution  in  the  principles  of  the  government.  >They  met  it,  there- 
fore, with  a  most  furious  and  determined  opposition,  which  they 
kept  up  for  nearly  ten  years. 

Kaeso  Quinctius.  —  The  opposition  was  led  by  a  party  of  young 
bloods,  of  patrician  families,  at  the  head  of  whom  was  Kaeso 
Quinctius,  son  of  the  famous  Lucius  Quinctius  Cincinnatus,  a 
handsome,  high-spirited  young  man,  of  remarkable  bodily  strength 
and  prowess  in  war.  Under  his  lead  the  hot-headed  young 
patricians  resisted  the  passage  of  the  law  by  breaking  up  the 
plebeian  assemblies,  beating  and  otherwise  maltreating  their  ofii- 
cers,  even  laying  violent  hands  on  the  tribunes  in  contempt  of 
their  sacred  character.  The  tribunes,  driven  to  desperation,  dis- 
regarded the  law  in  their  turn,  and  stretched  the  power  of  their 
assembly  far  beyond  its  lawful  limits.  Kaeso  was  summoned 
before  it  on  a  capital  charge  requiring  enormous  bail ;  and  when 
he  escaped  by  night  and  went  into  exile,  the  bail  was  exacted 
from  his  father  with  such  severity  that  he  was  obliged  to  sell  his 
property  and  retire  to  a  little  farm  beyond  the  Tiber,  wiiere  he 
lived  with  his  wife  in  a  poor  cottage,  cultivating  his  fields  with 
his  own  hands. 

Appius  Herdonius.  —  The  next  year,  while  the  city    b,0.  460. 
was  still  divided  into  two  hostile  camps,  and  the  agita- 
tion for  the  Terentilian  Law  was  at  its  height,  an  event  occurred 
of  the    most   startling   character.     A   Sabine   nobleman,    Appius 
^  On  this  point  consult  the  first  chapter  of  Maine's  Ancient  Law. 


56  THE    CONTEST  BETWEEN   THE    ORDERS. 

Herdonius  by  name,  with  a  band  of  followers  and  a  company  of 
Roman  exiles,  floated  down  the  Tiber  by  night,  landed  just  above 
the  city,  and  entering  it  by  an  unguarded  gate,  took  possession  of 
the  citadeP  overlooking  the  Forum.  It  is  probable  that  the 
banished  Roman  patricians  had  associated  themselves  with  the 
enemy  of  their  country,  just  as  is  related  in  the  case  of  Coriolanus. 
Probably  Koeso  Quinctius  was  among  them ;  for  although  his 
name  is  not  mentioned  on  the  occasion,  it  disappears  from  this 
time,  and  he  is  spoken  of  a  year  or  two  later  as  being  already  dead. 
Herdonius  expected  to  be  joined  by  the  disaffected  party  in  the 
city,  and  by  the  slaves,  whom  he  called  upon  to  rise.  But  the 
moderate  party  among  the  patricians,  at  their  head  the  consul 
Publius  Valerius,  were  patriotic  Romans;  and  the  plebeians, 
although  perplexed  and  suspicious,  were  on  the  alert.  Herdonius 
was  caught  in  a  trap.  With  the  help  of  a  body  of  troops  from  the 
friendly  city  of  Tusculum,  Valerius  and  the  plebeians  stormed  the 
citadel  and  put  to  death  the  whole  party.  Valerius  was  himself 
killed  in  the  assault. 
r^--  Cincinnatus.  —  It  was  a  perilous  season  for  Rome.  The  politi- 
cal quarrels  had  reached  the  dimensions  of  civil  war,  and  the 
foreign  enemies  were   every  day  growing   stronger    and   bolder. 

Appius  Herdonius  was  a  Sabine ;  the  occupation  of 
B.C.  460.     Mount  Algidus  by  the  yEquians  was  a  more  permanent 

and  ^disastrous  loss.  It  gave  the  ^quians  a  base  of 
B.C.  459.     operations  from  which  they  were  able  even  to  capture 

Tusculum ;  the  Romans,  by  helping  in  its  recovery,  re- 
quited the  good  service  which  the  Tusculans  had  done  them  in 

recapturing  the  Roman  citadel  from  Herdonius.  The 
B.C.  458.     following  year  a  Roman  army  was  attacked  in  its  camp 

near  Mount  Algidus  and  nearly  brought  to  destruction. 
The  panic  at  Rome  was  great.  For  a  moment  party  strifes  were 
forgotten,  and  the  veteran  Cincinnatus,  the  father  of  Kaeso  Quinc- 
tius, was  called  from  his  retirement  and  made  dictator.    In  sixteen 

1  The  height  now  occupied  by  the  church  of  Sta,  Tslaria  in  Araceli;   they 
seem  also  to  have  occupied  the  neighboring  height  of  the  CapitoHum. 


COMPROMISE  MEASURES.  57 

days,  as  the  story  goes,  he  had  relieved  the  beleaguered  army,  re- 
captured Mount  Algidus,  and  defeated  the  army  of  the  enemy,  and 
sent  it  under  the  yoke.  But  the  success,  if  it  was  ever  gained  in 
reaUty,^  was  of  short  duration.  The  ^quians  soon  recovered  the 
pass,  and  the  confederacy  was  for  several  years  actually  cut  in  two 
(see  p.  53).  From  this  time  for  about  forty  years  it  was  all  that 
the  Romans  could  do  to  hold  their  own ;  and  during  this  interval 
the  petty  wars  with  Sabines,  ^Equians,  Volscians,  and  Etruscans 
cease  to  possess  any  interest  or  importance  for  us. 

Compromises.  —  Both   parties  were   now  weary  of  their  long 
controversies,  and,  we  may  suppose,  both  parties  saw  with  alarm 
that  while  the  city  was  distracted  with  their  dissensions,  the  enemy 
were  growing  stronger  and  more  active.     The  years  that  followed 
were  marked  by  compromises  upon  all   the  points   of  dispute. 
The  attempt  to  resume  the  occupied  lands  was  dropped, 
and  the  district  of  the  Aventine,  within  the  walls,  but    B.C.  456. 
unoccupied,  and  therefore  not  included  in  any  of  the 
local  tribes,  was  given  to  the  plebeians ;  ^  it  was  divided  up  into 
building   lots,    and    became    the    distinctively   plebeian 
quarter.     Two  years   afterwards  the  jurisdiction  of  the     B.C.  454. 
tribunes  was  regulated  by  a  law'^  which  gave  them  au- 
thority to  pass  judgment  in  cases  punishable  by  fine.     On  the 
other  hand  they  lost  the  power  which  they  had  illegally  exercised 
of  punishing  by  death  or  banishment ;  offences  which  were  subject 
to  these  penalties  were  reserved  for  the  centuriate  assembly,  which 
consisted  of  the  entire  people.''     The  law  made  two  sheep  and 
thirty  kine  the  maximum  of  fines  to  be  imposed  by  the 
tribunes.^     By  a  law  passed  a  few  years  later  these  values     B.C.  430. 

1  In  all  the  events  of  this  period,  and  indeed  long  after,  it  is  impossible  to 
draw  a  hard  and  fast  line  between  history  and  tradition.  The  substance  is  no 
doubt  true,  but  the  details  are  largely  poetic  creation. 

2  This  was  by  the  Icilian  Law.  ^  The  Aternian-Tarpeian  Law. 
*  This  rule  was  fixed  by  the  law  of  the  Twelve  Tables  (p.  59). 

^  This  probably  means  that  small  offences  were  fined  one  or  two  sheep,  and 
that  the  next  highest  penalty  was  one  beeve,  and  so  on  to  thirty. 


58  THE    CONTEST  BETWEEN   THE    ORDERS. 

were  commuted  into  money,  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  asses  for 
each  head  of  cattle,  and  ten  asses  for  a  sheep.^  If  a  higher  fine  was 
imposed  by  a  magistrate,  an  appeal  could  be  taken  to  the  assembly. 
Commission  to  Greece. — As  a  part  of  the  compromise  policy, 
the  proposition  of  the  Terentilian  Law  was  laid  aside,  and  it  was 
agreed  to  send  a  commission  of  three  patricians  to  Greece,  in 
order  to  examine  the  laws  of  Athens  and  other  cities,  and  report 
at  home  such  changes  as  might  be  desirable  in  those  of  Rome. 
Athens  was  at  this  time  at  the  height  of  its  power  and  splendor. 
Its  institutions  had  been  radically  reformed  by  Solon  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  before,  and  had  since  then  been  remod- 
elled from  time  to  time  in  a  more  democratic  spirit.  This  epoch 
is  known  as  the  Age  of  Pericles,  when,  under  the  inspiration  of 
this  great  statesman,  the  art  and  literature,  as  well  as  the  power 
of  Athens,  were  at  their  height. 

—  The  Decemvirate.  —  The  commissioners  returned  in 
B.C.  452.     two  years,  bringing  with  them  a  Greek  named  Hermo- 
dorus,  a  native  of  Ephesus,  to  assist  in  compiling  the 
code  ;  a  statue  was  afterwards  erected  in  his  honor  upon  the  comi- 
tium.    The  Romans  now  elected  a  board  of  ten  commissioners,  all 
patricians,  known  as  the  Decemviri  ("ten  men"),  to  revise  and 
codify  the  laws  ;  and,  as  was  the  usual  practice  among  the  ancients,- 
placed  the  government  of  the  city  in  their  hands  while 
B.C.  451.     they  were  engaged  in  the  work.     All  the  regular  magis- 
trates, as  well  plebeian  as  patrician,  —  consuls,  quaestors, 
tribunes,  and  cediles, — were  suspended  for  the  time  ;  and  the  right 
of  appeal  to  the  public  assembly  in  criminal  cases,  no  less  than  the 
right  of  the  tribunes  to  assist  against  abuses  of  magisterial  power, 
L^was  also  suspended.^ 

1  This  was  the  Julian-Papirian  Law.  The  as  was  a  pound  of  copper  (p.  27)  ; 
the  estimated  value  of  neat  cattle  was  therefore  one  hundred  pounds  of  copper 
each,  which  would  be,  at  the  present  value  of  copper,  about  $15.00. 

2  Other  examples  are  those  of  Solon  in  Athens  (r>.c.  594),  and  Sulla  (b.c. 
82),  and  the  Triumvirs  (r..c.  41),  in  Rome. 

3  Niebuhr  and  many  other  scholars  have  been  of  the  opinion  that  it  was 
part  of  the  scheme  to  have  this  board  of  ten  (like  the  nine  Archons  in  Athens) 


THE  DECEMVIRATE,  59 

Second  Year  of  the  Decemvirate.  —  The  work  of  codification  ■"] 
was  not  completed  the  first  year  \  a  second  board  of  ten  commis- 
sioners (three  of  whom  were  plebeians)  were  therefore 
elected,  who  finished  the  work  and  made  it  public.    The     b,0.  450. 
new  code  was  engraved  upon  twelve  columns   (ten  of 
them  being  the  work  of  the  first  board),  and  was  known  as  the 
Law  of  the  Twelve  Tables.^     The  Twelve  Tables  formed  the  basis 
of  all  Roman  law,  and  were  regularly  committed  to  memory  by 
Roman  school-boys,  as  the  most  essential  part  of  their  education.    __j 

Its  Overthrow.  —  \Vhen  the  second  year  of  the  Decemvirate- — » 
was  at  an  end,  the  commissioners  did  not  lay  down  their  office,  but 
continued  to  hold  it  illegally  for  several  months.    They  are  accused 
also  of  gross  tyranny  and  cruelty ;  the  odium  falling  chiefly  upon 
Appius  Claudius,  the   most  active   and  influential  among  them.- 
By  their  oppression  the  plebeians  were  driven  to  secede 
a  second  time,  —  first  gathering  in  the  plebeian  quarter,     B.C.  449. 
the  Aventine,  and  thence    marching  out,  as  before,  to 
the  Sacred  Mount.     The  Decemvirs  were  forced  to  abdicate,  and 
were  punished  with  death,  after  which  the  regular  machinery  of 
government  was  again  put  in  operation.   The  new  consuls,  Lucius 
Valerius  and  Marcus  Horatius,  carried  a  law  making  it  an  offence 
punishable  with  death  to  procure  the  election  of  any  magistrate 
without  the  right  of  appeal  from  his  decisions.^     Other  laws  of 
these  consuls  will  be  spoken  of  in  the  next  chapter. 

take  the  place  of  the  magistrates  as  a  permanent  form  of  government.  It  is 
hard  to  believe,  however,  in  view  of  the  contests  of  the  next  seventy-five  years, 
that  the  patricians  were  now  ready  to  share  the  substance  of  power  with  the 
plebeians, 

1  Tabulae  (Tablets  or  Tables)  was  the  name  given  to  any  flat  surface  used 
for  writing  or  engraving;  usually  of  wood,  spread  with  wax,  but  in  the  case  of 
inscriptions,  of  bronze  or  marble. 

2  The  legend  tells  of  two  gross  cases  of  abuse  :  the  unjust  judgment  of 
Appius  Claudius,  decreeing  a  plebeian  girl,  named  Virginia,  to  be  the  slave  of 
his  client,  from  which  fate  her  father  rescued  her  by  stabbing  her  to  the  heart; 
and  the  death  of  a  brave  soldier,  Sicinius  Dentatus. 

3  This  did  not  apply  to  the  dictators,  who  were  not  elected,  but  appointed, 
and  who  were  not  subject  to  appeal  for  nearly  two  centuries  after  this  time. 


^ 


60  THE    CONTEST  BETWEEN   THE    ORDERS. 

^,  The  Twelve  Tables.  —  Only  fragments  of  the  Twelve  Tables 
have  come  down  to  us,  and  we  know  very  little  of  their  details. 
The  code  was  largely  occupied  with  describing  and  regulating  the 
legal  procedure,  so  as  to  put  an  end  to  the  capricious  administra- 
tion of  law  by  the  magistrates  :  this  was  probably  the  principal  ob- 
ject of  the  Terentilian  rogation.   The  Twelve  Tables  did  not  merely 

'  codify  the  old  customary  law,  but  altered  and  ameliorated  it  so 
as  to  make  it  better  suited  to  the  needs  of  an  advancing  civilization. 
The  law  of  debt  was  not  abolished,  but  its  harshness  was  somewhat 
mitigated.  The  death  penalty,  which  had  been  lawlessly  exercised 
by  the  tribunes,  was  now  reserved  to  the  centuriate  assembly,^ 
while  the  plebeian  assembly,  presided  over  by  the  tribunes  and 
sediles,  became  the  regular  organ  for  the  punishment  of  inferior 
offences. 

Changes  in  Family  Law.  —  The  most  significant  work  of  the 
new  code  was  in  relaxing  the  family  organization  upon  which  the 
patrician  institutions  had  rested,  and  thus  preparing  the  way  for  a 
modern  organization  of  society.  .  It  contained  provisions  for  free- 
ing both  wife  and  sons  from  the  absolute  power  of  the  head  of  the 
family,  pater-familias.  What  is  even  more  important,  it  laid  the 
foundation  for  the  social  assimilation  of  patricians  and  plebeians. 
Until  this  time  the  patricians  alone  had  a  recognized  system  of 
gentes.  The  clients  belonged  to  the  gentes  of  their  patrons,  as 
dependent  members,  but  the  plebeian  family  organization,  of  pre- 
cisely the  same  nature  as  the  patrician,  had  not  been  recognized 
by  Roman  law.  The  law  of  the  Twelve  Tables  gave  recognition 
to  the  gentile  system  of  the  plebeians,  and  at  the  same  time,  by 
granting  to  the  clients  the  right  of  holding  property  and  some 
independence  of  action  in  relation  to  their  patrons,  it  relaxed 
and  gradually  abolished  the  institution  of  clientage.  From  this 
time  the  clients  appear  no  longer  as  unqualified  adherents  of 
the  patricians,  but  are  by  degrees  merged  in  the  great  body  of 

(the  plebeians. 

1  This  was  presided  over  by  the  consuls,  but  the  tribunes  might  bring  prose- 
cutions before  it. 


THE    CANULEIAN  LAW.  61 

r  The  Canuleian  Law.  — The  laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables  mark  a 
turning  point  of  vital  importance  in  the  social  history  of  the 
Romans.  Not  only  the  strict  organization  of  the  patrician  fami- 
lies, but  their  exclusive  privileges,  are  now  at  an  end.  The  next 
step,  completing  the  civil  equality  of  the  two  orders,  followed 
much  more  rapidly  than  could  have  been  expected. 
Only  four  years  after  the  overthrow  of  the  decemvirate,  B.C.  445. 
the   tribune,   Gains  Canuleius,   carried  a  law  to  extend 

I  to  the  plebeians  the  coniibiiim,  or  right  of  marriage  with  patricians. 
Right  of  Intermarriage.  —  Primitive  nations,  as  a  rule,  prohibit 
intermarriage  with  foreigners  :  and  the  plebeians,  being  citizens  of 
Latin  towns  which  were  originally  independent  of  Rome,  were  for- 
eigners to  the  patricians.  It  is  true,  the  Servian  constitution  had 
made  them  citizens,  but  citizens  with  inferior  rights  ;  and  even  the 
law  of  the  Twelve  Tables  had  contained  the  prohibition  of  intermar- 
riage.    But  the  plebeians  had  now  been  admitted  step  by  step, 

*  not  into  the  patrician  organization,  but  into  a  permanent  political 
association  with  the  patricians.  They  had  even  received  the  right 
to  have  a  gentile  organization  of  their  own  similar  to  that  of  the 
patricians.  It  was  therefore  only  a  short  step  further  to  allow  the 
families  to  intermarry.  By  the  passage  of  the  Canuleian  Law, 
the  plebeians  secured  entire  equality  in  civil  rights,  and  the  two 
orders  were  rapidly  merged  into  one  people.  Having  now  secured 
civil  equality,  the  sagacious  plebeian  leaders  next  proceeded  to 

[contend  for  political  equahty. 

II.    The  Contest  for  Political  Rights. 

The  Roman  Constitution.  —  After  the  overthrow  of  the  decern-  - 

virate  the  old  form  of  government  was  restored,  with  some  changes. 
I.  The  Magistrates  :  two  consuls,  elected  yearly  in  the  cen- 
turiate  assembly,  with  chief  executive  and  military  authority,  and 
jurisdiction  in  civil  cases.  They  were  assisted  by  two  quaestors, 
whose  powers  had  originally  been  judicial,  but  who  now  had  the 
.  treasury  as  their  special  charge.  ^The  quaestors  had  formerly  been 


62  THE    CONTEST  BETWEEN   THE    ORDERS. 

appointed  by  the  consuls,  but  were  now  elected  in  a  newly 
organized  assembly  of  the  tribes,  the  comitia  tributa  —  not  to  be 
confounded  with  the  plebeian  assembly  —  in  which  patricians  and 
plebeians  voted  alike.  All  magistrates  must  be  patricians. 
^  II.  The_Senate,  consisting  of  three  hundred  members,  appointed 
by  the  consuls,  chiefly  patricians,  but  with  a  few  plebeians.  Its 
powers  were  chiefly  advisory ;  but  the  patrician  members  had  the 
right  of  nullifying  laws  on  the  ground  of  unconstitutionality,  and 
of  assuming  the  government  if  at  any  time  the  city  was  left  without 
regular  magistrates  {inte?'regnum') . 

III.  The_Assemblies,  three  in  number,  composed  of  patricians 
and  plebeians  without  distinction.  The  principal  assembly  was 
the  comitia  centitriata  (p.  34),  organized  according  to  age  and 
property.  This  assembly  elected  the  consuls  and  afterwards  other 
higher  magistrates,  passed  laws,  declared  war,  and  exercised  crim- 
inal jurisdiction  in  all  cases  involving  the  punishment  of  death, 
bodily  chastisement  or  exile.  The  newly  formed  coitiitia  tributa^ 
organized  by  tribes  or  local  districts,  elected  the  quaestors  and 
the  other  inferior  magistrates  afterwards  introduced,  and  had 
the  power  of  making  laws.  The  old  patrician  comitia  curiata 
(p.  19),  to  which  the  plebeians  had  now  been  admitted,  were 
kept  up  for  certain  formalities,  especially  for  granting  the  imperiiwi, 
or  power  to  command,  to  the  newly  elected  consuls. 

IV.  The  Plebs,  consisting  of  all  who  were  not  patricians  — 
rural  plebeians,  clients,  and  city  plebs ;  presided  over  by  two 
tribunes,  assisted  by  two  aediles.  Its  assembly,^  composed  exclu- 
sively of  plebeians,  was  organized  by  tribes,  and  had  full  power  to 
regulate  the  affairs  of  the  plebeians.  The  tribunes  had  also  not 
merely  the  jus  auxili  (p.  43),  but  also  the  power  of  vetoing  the 
action  of  any  magistrate,  unless  specially  exempted  by  law ;  espe- 
cially of  forbidding  the  adoption  of  ordinances  of  the  Senate 
{senatus  consulta),  and  the  presentation  of  rogations  (p.  54)  to 

Lthe   people.^  The   aediles   had   the    charge    of  the    streets    and 
markets.     The  assembly  had  the  power  of  imposing  fines  upon 
1  Often  known  as  comitia  tributa,  but  properly  co7tcilium  tributiim  plebis. 


THE  MILITARY  TRIBUNATE.  63 

any  citizen,  and  its  ordinances  (called  plcbiscitd)  appear  to  have 
had  the  force  of  laws  when  the  Senate  gave  its  approval. 

The  New  Demands  of  the  Plebeians.  —  The  plebeians  were^ 
now  in  possession  of  three  out  of  the  four  essential  rights  of  citi- 
zenship. The  commercium,  or  right  of  property,  they,  as  being 
Latins,  had  always  enjoyed ;  the  siiffragiinn,  or  right  of  voting, 
had  been  extended  to  them  at  the  establishment  of  the  republic ; 
the  conubium,  or  right  of  intermarriage,  they  had  just  obtained 
by  the  Canuleian  Law.  They  now  proceeded  to  demand  the  only 
remaining  right,  the  honofes,  or  right  of  holding  magistracies. 
The  contest  upon  this  issue,  forming  the  second  stage  of  the 
Contest  of  the  Orders,  continued  for  about  eighty  years,  until  it 
was  determined  by  the  Licinian  laws,  B.C.  367. 

Privileges  of  the  Consulate. — The  office  of  eonsul  carried 
with  it,  for  the  year  of  its  tenure,  the  complete  exercise  of  the 
kingly  power,  except  so  far  as  this  power  had  been  limited  by  the 
right  of  appeal  to  the  people  in  criminal  cases  (p.  2,^).  During 
his  term  of  office  the  consul  was  distinguished  by  the  royal  insignia 
(p.  37)  :  and  after  retiring  from  office  he  enjoyed, 
as  a  consularis,  or  man  of  consular  rank,  an 
especial  dignity  in  the  state,  with  the  right  to 
wear  the  consular  dress  on  public  occasions,  to 
speak  among  the  first  in  the  Senate,  and  to  set 
up  in  the  hall  of  his  house  waxen  busts  of  his 

.     1  r         1   -v.       /^u         •         •  •     THE  CURULE  CHAIR. 1 

ancestors,  as  tokens  01  nobility  (the  jus  tmagi- 
nimi).  These  privileges,  which  were  derived  from  the  rehgious 
preeminence  of  their  order,  the  patricians  were  not  disposed  to 
yield  to  the  plebeians,  even  after  they  had  consented  to  ally  them- 
selves with  them  in  marriage.  The  executive  and  military  authority 
of  the  office,  on  the  other  hand,  could  hardly  be  refused  to  the 
class  which  composed  the  rank  and  file  of  the  army. 

The  Military  Tribunate.  —  It  was  readily  agreed,  there-    B.C.  444. 
fore,  in  the  very  year  after  the  passage  of  the  Canuleian 
Law,  to  grant  the  plebeians  the  substance  of  magisterial  authority, 
1  On  the  reverse  of  a  denarius  of  the  Furian  gens. 


64  THE    CONTEST  BETWEEN   THE    ORDERS. 

while  still  withholding  from  them  all  the  privileges  which  con- 
ferred nobility.  This  was  accomplished  by  temporarily  suspending 
the  office  of  consul,  and  placing  the  consular  power  in  the  hands  of 
the  military  tribunes,  six  in  number,  who  were  the  regular  officers 
of  the  legion.  These  officers  had  heretofore  been  appointed  by 
the  consuls,  from  the  two  orders  indifferently.  Now  they  were  to 
be  elected  by  the  people  :  but  it  usually  happened  that  only  three 
or  four  were  chosen  by  the  people,  the  rest  being  probably 
appointed  as  before,  and  not  having  consular  power.   ^Each  year 

pit  was  decided  by  a  popular  vote  whether  to  elect  consuls  or 
military  tribunes,  and  this  compromise  was  continued  for  more 
than  fifty  years.  The  influence  of  the  patricians  was  still  so 
great  in  the  elections,  however,  that  it  was  forty- four  years 
before    a   plebeian   was    elected   mihtary    tribune   with    consular 

\_  power. 

/e.g.  443.  .'-'The  Censorship. — The  year  after  the  establishment 
of  the  military  tribunate,  it  was  decided  to  withdraw 
from  the  consular  magistrates  a  portion  of  their  duties,  and  place 
them  in  the  hands  of  a  pair  of  new  patrician  magistrates,  called 
Censors^  elected  for  five  years.  The  duties  of  this  new  office  were 
to  make  out  a  list  of  the  citizens,  and  distribute  them  into  classes 
according  to  their  property,  as  a  basis  for  the  military  levy  and 
taxation,  as  well  as  of  voting;  also  the  general  superintendence 
of  public  works  and  contracts.     Thus  the  patricians  kept  these 

Vimportant  powers  in  their  own  hands.  --After  the  schedule  of 
citizens  and  property  was  completed,  a  purifying  ceremony  or 
lustru?n  was  accomplished,  from  which  the  name  lustrian  was 
given  to  the  five-years  interval.  The  work  of  the  censors,  it  was 
found,  could  be  completed  in  a  year  and  a  half;  for  the  remainder 
of  the  lustrum,  therefore,  this  office  was  left  vacant.^ 

1  These  original  powers  of  the  censors  were  afterwards  enlarged  so  as  to 

make  their  office  the  most  dignified  and  powerful  in  the  state.     Especially  they 

exercised  the  lectio  senattis,  or  right  of  making  out  the  list  of  senators,  and  the 

regimen  morum,  or  right  of  punishing  immoral  and  indecent  acts :  it  is  this 

(^    function  that  has  given  the  word  cejtsor  its  familiar  meaning. 


REVIVAL    OF  ROMAN  POWER.  65 

Qusestorship.  —  The  quaestors,  two  in  number,  were  originally  — -r 
assistants  of  the  kings  and  the  consuls,  appointed  by  them,  and 
having  principally  judicial  functions.  Now  that  the  administra- 
tion of  criminal  justice  had  passed  completely  to  the  public 
assembhes,  the  duties  of  the  qu^stors  became  chiefly  fiscal,  they 
having  the  charge  of  the  treasury  under  the  direction  of  the 
Senate  and  higher  magistrates.  After  the  decemvirate  they  were 
elected  by  the  people  in  the  newly  organized    comitia  . 

tributa  (p.  62)^ and  a  few  years  later  the  office  was  B.C.  421. 
thrown  open  to  the  plebeians ;  as  the  quaestors  did  not 
have  the  use  of  the  curule  chair  ^  or  the/z/i-  imaginmn,  this  conces- 
sion was  readily  made  by  the  patricians.  At  the  same  time  two 
new  quaestors  were  added,  as  quartermasters  in  the  army;  and 
the  number  was  increased  from  time  to  time  as  there  was  need. 

Renewed    Strength   of    Rome.  —  The    harmony    established'^ 
through  these  compromises  infused  great  vigor  into  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  republic.     During  the  quarter  of  a  century  which  fol- 
lowed the  decemvirate  there  was  a  decided  advance  in  the  power  of 
Rome.  \The  old  Latin  city  of  Ardea  was  subdued  on  the 
occasion  of  some  disturbances,  and  organized  as  a  mihtary     B.C.  442. 
colony.    Soon  after,  the  dictator,  Aulus  Postumius,  gained    B.C.  431. 
a  signal  victory  at  Mt.  Algidus  over  the  y^quians  and 
Volscians,  and  recovered  this  important  post,  thus  restoring  the 
territorial  unity  of  the  confederacy  (p.  53).     It  is  related  that  the 
victorious  general  put  to  death  his  own  son,  for  leaving  his  post 
without  orders  during  the  battle  in  order  to  gain  an  unforeseen 
advantage.     A  similar  occurrence  is  related   in  other  wars,  and 
we  must  believe  that  the  stern  Roman  discipline  and  sense  of  duty 
was  carried  on  occasion  even  to  this  extreme. 

New  Conquests.  —  There  now  followed  a  rapid  succession  of 
conquests,  and  a  great  extension  of  the  Roman  territory .'r.  The"^ 

1  The  magistrates  who  had  the  right  to  use  the  curule  chair  (of  the  regular 
magistrates,  the  consul,  proetor,  censor,  and  curule  aedile)  were  known  as 
curule  magistrates ;  fhe  tenure  of  these  magistracies  conferred  nobility  upon 
the  descendants. 


THE  AGER  EOMANUS  AND  THE  LATIN  CONFEDERACY 

In  the  time  of  the  early  Republic,  about  B.C.  450» 


SCALE   OF   MILES 


The  Ager  Romanus. 
The  Latin  Confederacy- 
FC""'  j  The  orifjinal  dumaiii  of  the  city  of  Rome. 


1.  The  Pass  of  Algidus. 

2.  The  Alban  Mount. 

3.  Mount  Soracte. 


CONQUEST   OF   VEIL 


67 


B.C.  418. 
B.C.  415. 
B.C.  406. 


capture  of  Fidenre,  the  outpost  of  Veil,  on  the  left  bank    B.C.  426. 
of  the  Tiber,  completed  for  Rome  the  occupation  of  that 
bank,  and  was  the  necessary  step  to  the  conquest  of  Veii.     The 
defeat  of  the  ^quians  at  Mt.  Algidus  had  restored  communica- 
tion with  the  Hernican  country  (p.  53)  ;  the  city  of  Labi- 
cum,  in  this  neighborhood,  was  now  annexed  by  Rome, 
and  soon  after  the  ^quian  town  of  Bola.     The  Romans 
also  captured  the  Volscian  town  of  Anxur  (afterwards 
known  as  Terracina). 

Siege  of  Veii.  —  Inspired  by  these  successes  and  by  the  con- 
sciousness of  growing  strength,  the  Romans  now  determined  to 
rid  themselves  of  their  most  powerful  and  formidable  rival,  the 
Etruscan  city  of  Veii.  This  city,  only  ten 
miles  distant  from  Rome,  was  the  advance- 
guard  of  Etruscan  power,  as  Rome  was  the 
outpost  of  the  Latin  nationahty.  If  the 
Etruscans  had  been  at  this  time  as  strong 
and  as  united  as  they  had  once  been,  it  is 
not  likely  that  they  would  have  allowed  the 
fall  of  Veii.  But  there  were  dissensions 
among  them,  and  the  other  Etruscan  cities 
refused  to  aid  their  confederate.  Moreover 
the  Etruscan  power  was  itself  upon  the  wane. 
The  Gallic  tribes  from  beyond  the  Alps  had 
invaded  the  valley  of  the  Po,  and  were  at 
this  moment  engaged  in  the  overthrow  of 
the  northern  Etruscan  empire  ;  while  in  the 
south  the  city  of  Capua,  the  capital  of  the 

Etruscan  possessions  in  Campania,  had  just  been  cap-  B.C.  424. 
tured  by  the  Samnites.  The  undertaking  to  conquer  Veii 
was  not  as  hopeless  as  it  would  have  seemed  a  half  century 
earlier ;  and,  at  any  rate,  Rome  could  not  hope  for  wide  empire, 
or  even  for  permanent  possession  of  her  present  conquests,  so 
long  as  this  inveterate  enemy  was  at  her  gates. 

Conquest  of  Veii.  —  The  siege  of  Veii  was  kept  up  with  various 


ETRUSCAN    ARCHER. 


68  THE    CONTEST  BETWEEN   THE    ORDERS. 

fortunes  for  ten  years,  and  was  at  last  brought  to  a  triumphant 
conchision  in  ];.c.  396  by  the  Dictator  Marcus  Furius  Camilkis. 
The  city  was  captured  by  means  of  a  mine  carried  into  its  citadel. 
The  contest  had  been  one  of  life  and  death,  and  the  vengeance 
inflicted  by  the  victors  upon  their  defeated  enemies  was  terrible. 
The  people  of  Veil  were  exterminated ;  the  men  were  put  to  the 
sword,  and  the  women  and  children  sold  into  slavery.  A  por- 
tion of  the  peasant  population  became  Roman  citizens,  retain- 
ing their  estates ;  the  rest  of  the  land  was  divided  up  among  the 
Roman  people,  while  the  walls  and  buildings  of  the  city  were  left 
empty  and  deserted.  The  worship  of  Juno,  the  patron  deity  of 
Veii,  was  transferred  to  Rome,  where  a  temple  was  built  for  her 
upon  the  Aventine.  It  was  said  that  the  soldier  who  first  entered 
her  temple  after  the  capture  of  the  city  asked  the  image  of  the 
goddess  whether  she  would  go  to  Rome,^  and  that  she  answered 
by  a  nod. 

Enlarg-ement  of    the  Roman  Domain. — The  next 
B.C.  395.     year  the  neighboring  city  of  Capena  was  also  conquered 

and  annexed.    By  these  annexations  the  Roman  territory 
was  greatly  enlarged  :    four  new  tribes  were  made,  bringing  the 

number  to  twenty-five,  and  two  military  colonies,  Nepete 
B.C.  383.     and  Sutrium,  were  established  upon  the  Etruscan  frontier. 

III.    Triumph  of  the  Plebs. 

Reform  in  Military  Organization.  —  The  war  with  Veii  was  a 
critical  event  in  the  territorial  growth  of  Rome.  The  removal  of 
this  rival  left  Rome  without  any  obstacle  to  its  growth,  and  from 
this  time  on  there  was  a  steady  advance  in  its  possessions  and 
power.  The  larger  enterprises  which  she  now  undertook  de- 
manded a  greater  concentration  of  resources,  and  a  more  efficient 
military  organization ;  and  at  about  this  time  a  reform  was  made 
in  the  military  system,  which  is  generally  believed  to  have  been  the 
work  of  the  great  commander  of  this  age,  Marcus  Camillus.     In  the 

1  Visne  Romam  ire,  Juno?  —  Livy,  v.  22. 


MILITARY  REFORMS.  69 

first  place,  the  siege  of  Veil  itself  was  an  enterprise  wholly  different 
from  any  previous  one.  '  Heretofore  the  army  had  been  a  militiay 
levied  every  year  for  a  summer  campaign,  and  serving  without  pay. 
But  when  a  regular  siege  was  commenced,  to  continue  year  in  and 
year  out  until  the  city  fell,  it  was  necessary  to  have  permanent 
works  and  troops  in  uninterrupted  service,  and  these  could  not  be 
had  without  pay.  From  this  time  the  Roman  army,  without 
ceasing  to  be  a  militia  —  for  every  citizen,  and  none  but  citizens, 
must  serve  —  was  a  body  of  paid  troops.  .J 

The  Phalangal  Order.  —  Still  more  important  was  the  change 
in  organization  and  tactics.  The  early  Roman  army,  like  that  of 
the  Greeks,  was  a  phalanx ;  that  is,  a  compact  body  of  troops, 
forming  a  continuous  line  without  breaks  or  intervals  :  the  centuries 
of  the  early  army  appear  to  have  been  only  administrative  divisions, 
of  no  consequence  in  the  line  of  battle.  An  army  drawn  up  in 
this  order,  and  armed  with  long  spears,  was  almost  invincible  in 
defence ;  but  it  could  not  move  with  ease  or  precision  except 
upon  level  ground,  and  was  unsuited  to  attack.  The  Greeks 
developed  the  phalanx  to  its  highest  degree  of  efficiency,  by  com- 
bining with  it  a  large  body  of  cavalry  and  light  infantry.  The 
Macedonian  phalanx  was  a  military  organization  of  wonderful 
power,  but  proved  no  match  for  the  Roman  legion. 

The  Manipular  Order.  —  The  Romans  developed  their  military 
system  in  precisely  the  opposite  direction,  securing  a  high  degree 
of  flexibility  and  individuality  of  action  by  surrendering  the  com- 
pactness and  mass  of  the  phalanx.  This  change  was  made  by 
successive  steps  at  various  periods,  but  appears  to  have  been  be- 
gun at  the  present  time,  under  the  influence  of  Camillus.  The 
legion  was  divided  into  thirty  companies,  called  77ianiples,  the 
average  strength  of  which  may  be  reckoned  as  one  hundred  and 
twenty  heavy-armed  men,  and  twenty  hght-armed,  making  4200  in 
all.^  Each  maniple  was  commanded  by  two  centurions,  the  legion 
being  commanded  by  six  military  tribunes,  two  exercising  com- 

1  The  maniples  were  afterwards  combined  into  ten  battalions,  called  cohorts, 
and  on  the  other  hand  subdivided  each  into  two  platoons,  called  centuries. 


70  THE    CONTEST  BETWEEN   THE    ORDERS. 

mand  at  a  time.  The  division  by  classes  was  given  up,  and  all 
the  heavy  armed  troops  were  equipped  alike,  an  oblong  wooden 
shield  covered  with  leather  and  protecting  the  whole  body  {^scii- 
,  ///;;/),  beincr  now  substituted  for  the  round  brass  clipeics. 
JV  Order  of  Battle.  —  The  arrangement  of  the  maniples  when  in 
order  of  battle  was  what  was  known  as  the  quincunx.  The  army 
was  formed  in  three  ranks,  the  maniples  of  one  standing  behind 
the  spaces  of  that  in  front ;  by  this  it  was  possible  to  withdraw 
the  front  line  and  advance  those  in  the  rear  through  the  spaces 
between  the  maniples.  The  three  ranks  were  distinguished  from 
one  another  in  age  and  equipment,  and  a  regular  system  of  reserves 
was  adopted,  the  three  lines  coming  successively  into  action.^ 

The  Cavalry.  —  The  cavalry  was  always  a  secondary  concern 
with  the  Romans,  except  in  the  very  earliest  period ;  but  at  the 
time  of  the  war  with  Veii  the  practice  came  up  of  having  a  corps 
of  volunteer  cavalry  {equites  equo  privato),  composed  of  wealthy 
young  men  who  had  not  found  admittance  into  the  eighteen 
centuries  of  public  cavalry.  In  the  course  of  time  both  bodies 
of  cavalry  became  mere  parade  corps,  while  the  Romans  depended 
upon  their  auxiharies  for  an  active  cavalry  force. 
"The  Battle  of  the  AUia. — Six  years  after  the  conquest  of 
Veii  a  terrible  disaster  befell  the  Roman  people.  Their  city  was 
captured  and  burned  by  an  army  of  Gauls,  who  had  come  into 
collision  with  the  Romans  in  the  following  manner.  These  Gauls 
had  attacked  the  Etruscan  city  of  Clusium,  which  was  friendly 
to  Rome,  and  the  Romans  had  sent  ambassadors  to  intercede 
for  their  allies.  But  the  ambassadors,  in  contempt  of  their  sacred 
character  and  obligations,  took  part  in  the  battle  on  the  side  of 
the  Etruscans,  and  one  of  them  even  slew  a  Gallic  leader.  At 
this  the  Gauls  were  so  incensed  that  they  turned  their  assault  from 
Clusium  against  the  nation  of  the  faithless  ambassadors.  The  two 
armies  met,  July   i8,   390,^  upon  the   River  Allia,  about  eleven 

1  The  soldiers  of  the  first  rank  were  called. //rt^A///,  the  stcondi  principes,  the 
third  triarii.     This  is  the  organization  found  in  the  Samnite  and  Punic  Wars. 

2  This  is  the  date  usually  given;   really  it  was  about  three  years  later. 


CAPTURE    OF  ROME   BY    THE   GAULS.  71 

miles  from  Rome ;  and  the  Romans  sustained  a  defeat  so  unex- 
pected and  overwhelming,  that  this  day  {^dies  Alliensis)  was  always 
afterwards  regarded  as  one  of  ill  omen.  The  Roman  army  was 
destroyed.  The  survivors  mostly  escaped  to  the  abandoned  city 
of  Veii  near  by,  the  fortifications  of  which  were  still  standing,  and 
here  maintained  themselves  ;  the  magistrates  and  able-bodied  men 
within  the  city  withdrew  into  the  Capitol,  while  the  rest  of  the 
population  scattered  into  the  country  and  the  neighboring  towns. 

Capture  of  the  City.  —  The  Gauls  advanced  slowly  and  cau- 
tiously into  the  city.  They  could  not  believe  that  it  would  be 
taken  without  another  battle,  and  they  feared  an  ambuscade. 
But  they  met  no  resistance.  The  streets  and  houses  were  deserted. 
At  last  they  found  their  way  to  the  Senate-house ;  and  here  they 
found  the  senators,  who  had  disdained  to  fly,  seated  in  their  usual 
order.  At  first  they  stood  and  gazed  upon  them  with  awe.  Then 
a  Gallic  soldier  laid  his  hand  upon  the  white  beard  of  a  senator 
and  stroked  it.  The  senator,  regarding  it  as  an  indignity,  raised 
his  ivory  staff,  and  struck  him  upon  the  head.  This  broke  the 
spell  which  the  sight  of  the  dignified  assembly  seemed  to  have 
cast  over  the  invaders ;  the  senators  were  speedily  massacred,  and 
the  city  given  up  to  pillage.  The  victors  burned  all  parts  of  it 
within  their  reach,  and  in  this  conflagration  perished  most  of  the 
records  of  the  earlier  history. 

Siege  of  the  Capitol.  —  The  Capitol  still  held  out,  and  was 
stoutly  besieged  for  seven  months.  At  one  time  the  besiegers 
nearly  succeeded  in  capturing  the  garrison.  A  messenger  from 
the  Roman  army  at  Veii  scaled  the  rocky  sides  of  the  hill  by 
night.  His  tracks  were  seen,  and  the  next  night  the  Gauls  fol- 
lowed his  footprints,  and  made  their  way  nearly  to  the  top.  But 
the  garrison  were  waked  by  the  cackling  of  the  sacred  geese  in 
the  temple  of  Juno,  and  under  the  lead  of  Marcus  Manlius,  a 
distinguished  patrician,  repulsed  the  invaders.  Another  incident 
of  the  siege  is  the  daring  act  of  Kseso  Fabius,  a  young  man  who 
passed  in  open  day  from  the  Capitol  to  the  Quirinal  Hill,  in  order 
to  accomplish  a  certain  religious  ceremony  which  was  due  at  that 


72  THE    CONTEST  BETWEEN  THE    ORDERS. 

date,  and  then  returned  to  the  garrison.  It  would  seem  that  the 
Gauls  were  so  impressed  by  his  boldness  and  his  sanctity,  that 
they  allowed  him  to  pass  without  question. 

End  of  the  Siege.  — The  Gauls,  as  is  well  known,  were  a  people 
prompt  and  courageous  in  attack,  but  lacking  in  persistence ;  and 
it  could  hardly  have  been  expected  that  they  should  keep  up  the 
siege  without  discouragement  for  so  long  a  time.  At  last  news 
came  to  them  that  the  Venetians,  a  tribe  of  northeastern  Italy, 
were  invading  their  territory,  and  they  readily  agreed  to  a  treaty, 
by  which  they  withdrew  from  the  city  upon  the  payment  of  one 
thousand  pounds  of  gold.  To  raise  this  sum  the  women  contrib- 
uted their  jewels  and  ornaments,  and  received  as  a  recompense 
the  right  to  ride  in  carriages  in  the  streets  of  the  city. 

Rebuilding  of  the  City.  —  Rome  was  now  in  ruins,  and  a  few 
miles  distant  stood  a  large,  well-built  city,  empty  of  inhabitants. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  many  of  the  plebeians  wished  to  abandon 
the  desolated  spot,  and  transfer  their  government  and  residences 
to  the  site  of  Veil.  But  attachment  to  their  fatherland,  regard  for 
the  sacred  auspices  of  the  city,  and  the  consideration  of  the  pe- 
culiar advantages  of  the  situation  of  Rome,  prevailed ;  an  inland 
town,  like  Veii,  could  never  have  attained  to  the  imperial  great- 
ness of  the  city  upon  the  Tiber.  As  soon  as  it  was  decided  that 
they  should  remain  in  their  old  home,  they  energetically  went  to 
work  to  rebuild  their  houses.  The  city  provided  bricks  without 
cost,  and  in  the  haste  of  building  no  pains  were  taken  to  observe 
carefully  the  course  of  the  streets  and  sewers,  or  even  the  precise 
boundary  lines  of  property,  but  every  man  was  allowed  to  build 
very  much  as  he  pleased.  The  consequence  was  that  Rome  was 
a  network  of  narrow,  crooked  streets,  with  very  high  houses ;  and 
no  remedy  was  found  for  the  irregularity  until  after  the  ground 
was  burned  over  again  in  the  great  conflagration  of 
A.D.  64.      Nero. 

Advance  of  the  Roman  Power.  —  It  is  one  of  the 
marvels  of  history  that  this  great  calamity  appears  hardly  to  have 
checked  for  a  moment  the  advance  of  the  Roman  power.     Her 


THE  AGE    OE  CAMILLUS.  73 

enemies  rose  on  all  sides,  expecting  to  crush  her  in  her  distress  : 
the  Volscians,  the  ^Equians,  and  the  Etruscans  all  at  once  assailed 
her.    But  the  hero  Camillus  was  again  made  dictator,  and  by  rapid 
and  masterly  movements  defeated  the  three   enemies,  one   after 
the  other.     The  wars  continued,  however,  at  intervals,  for  several 
years,  and  even  the  old  allies  of  Rome,  the  Latins,  now  united 
themseh^es  with  their  old  enemies.      Out  of  it  all  Rome  came 
victorious.      The  fertile  territory  of  Pometia,  now  the 
Pontine  Marshes,  was   conquered  from  the  Volscians  ;     B.C.  386. 
new  military  colonies  were  established,^  more  dependent 
upon  Rome  than  the  older  ones ;    and  the  nearest  Latin  town, 
Tusculum,  an  old  and  faithful  ally,  whose  timely  succor 
had  saved  the  city  when  surprised  by  Appius  Herdonius     B.C.  381. 
(p.  56),  was  annexed  to  Rome.     In  this  period  of  glory 
we  see  a  new  activity  in  public  works,  for  the  first  time  since  the 
age  of  the  Tarquins.     Part  of  the  walls  were  rebuilt  of  hewn  stone, 
and  the  Capitoline  Hill  was  faced  in  the  same  material. 

Camillus. — This  period  may  be  fitly  called  the  age  of  Camillus,, 
for  this  great  general  lived  to  an  advanced  age,  the  most  conspic- 
uous character  among  his  countrymen,  and  closely  connected  with 
every  important  event.  He  was  a  man  of  genius  and  of  unques- 
tionable integrity.  To  him  is  no  doubt  due  the  reform  in  military  7 
organization  which  laid  the  foundation  of  the  great  empire  of 
Rome  (p.  67)  ;  he  was  at  the  same  time  the  leading  champion 
of  patrician  privileges,  and  near  the  end  of  his  hfe  took  an  active  ^^ 
part  in  resisting  the  innovations  of  the  Licinian  laws.  He  has 
been  compared  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  who,  like  him,  gained 
his  reputation  in  the  field,  and  then  distinguished  himself  as  the 
leader  of  the  conservatives  in  an  unsuccessful  resistance  to  reform. 
The  chief  faults  of  Camillus  were  arrogance  and  ostentation.  One 
of  his  numerous  triumphs  he  celebrated  in  a  chariot  drawn  by 
white  horses,  an  honor  which  properly  belonged  only  to  Jupiter 
and  the  sun-god.  On  this  account  he  incurred  the  displeasure 
of  the  common  people,  who  condemned  him  on  some  pretext  to 
1  B.C.  393,  Circeii;   383,  Sutrium  and  Nepete;    382,  Setia. 


74  THE    CONTEST  BETWEEN   THE    ORDERS. 

pay  a  heavy  fine  —  either  for  neglect  of  their  interests  in  disposing 
of  the  plunder  of  Veii,  or  for  the  impiety  displayed  in  his  triumph.^ 
Distress  of  the  Common  People.  —  But  in  all  the  splendor  and 
glory  which  surrounded  Rome  and  her  aristocracy,  the  common 
people  were  reduced  to  extreme  distress  by  the  devastations  of 
the  wars.  At  no  time  were  the  exactions  of  the  money-lenders, 
and  the  horrors  of  the  law  of  debt,  so  keenly  felt  as  in  the  years 

[__  which  followed  the  burning  of  the  city  by  the  Gauls.  It  is  related 
that  a  leading  patrician,  Marcus  Manlius  —  the  most  conspicuous 
])erson  in  Rome  next  to  Camillus  —  tried  to  remedy  the  distress 
of  the  poor,  just  as  had  been  done  by  Spurius  Cassius,  exactly  a 
hundred  years  before.  By  his  own  means  he  redeemed  numbers 
6f  unfortunate  debtors,  paying  off  their  debts,  and  restoring  them 
to  freedom.  It  would  seem  that  he  was  not  contented  with  this, 
but  was  excited  by  his  sympathy  into  actual  sedition;  however 
this  may  be,  he  was,  like  Cassius,  accused  of  aiming  at 
B.C.  384.     royal  power,  and  was  put  to  death  for  treason.^ 

r  Renewal  of  Civil  Contests.  —  Thus,  after  a  long  inter- 

val of  calm,  the  social  dissensions  broke  out  again,  —  a  twofold 

L  contest  this  time,  poor  against  rich,  plebeians  against  patricians. 
The  contest  was  begun  by  two  eminent  plebeians,  —  Lucius  Sextius 
and  Gains  Licinius  Stolo,  a  member  of  the  same  distinguished 
family  as  the  first  plebeian  military  tribune,^  and  also  connected 
by  marriage  with  patricians  of  the  highest  rank.  These  two 
men,  as  tribunes,  proposed  a  series  of  laws,  a  kind  of  "  Omnibus 

1  The  annals  of  these  years  are  exceedingly  confused,  and  the  story  of 
Camillus,  as  well  as  of  the  capture  of  Rome,  is  full  of  fabulous  incidents,  among 
which  we  may  probably  count  his  exile  to  Ardea,  his  rescue  of  Rome  from  the 
(jauls,  and  his  recovery  from  them  of  the  tribute  money. 

2  There  was  a  third  "  demagogue,"  who  ranked  in  tradition  with  Cassius 
and  Manhus  —  Spurius  Moslius,  who  in  the  year  B.C.  439,  in  a  time  of  great 
scarcity,  relieved  the  necessities  of  the  poor  from  his  own  means,  and  was  put 
to  death  on  the  charge  of  treasonable  designs  —  not  by  legal  trial,  like  the  two 
others,  but  by  the  authority  of  the  dictator. 

3  This  family  also  produced  two  of  the  most  distinguished  nobles  of  the  last 
century  of  the  republic,  —  Crassus  and  Lucullus. 


THE  LICINIAN  LA  WS.  75 

Bill,"  which  aimed  to  satisfy  by  one  act  of  legislation  the  interests 
of  all  classes  of  plebeians, — at  once  relieving  the  debtors,  remedy- 
ing the  abuses  connected  with  the  public  lands,  and  admitting  the 
plebeians  to  the  magistracies. 

Triumph  of  the  Plebs. — The  contest  was  long  and  bitter.  For 
ten  years  in  succession  Licinius  and  Sextius  were  re-elected  to  the 
tribunate ;  the  obstructive  power  of  the  tribunes  and  the  imperial 
authority  of  consuls  and  dictators  were  pitted  against  each  other, 
and  more  than  once  brought  the  state  to  actual  anarchy.^  At 
last  the  patricians  were  forced  to  yield,  and  a  compromise  was 
made,  the  chief  advantage  of  which  was  with  the  plebeians.  The 
Licinian  rogations  were  passed,  with  some  amendments, 
and,  in  celebration  of  the  era  of  good  feeling  thus  brought  B.C.  367. 
about,  the  aged  Camillus  vowed  and  dedicated  a  temple 
to  Harmony  {Co7iconfia),^  at  the  head  of  the  Forum.  "^ 

The   Licinian   Laws.  —  The  provisions   of  the   Licinian  laws  — 
were  six  in  number  : 

1.  Consuls  were  in  future  to  be  elected,  one  of  whom  must  be 
a  plebeian ;  legally  both  might  be,  but  in  practice  one  was  regu- 
larly a  patrician. 

2.  The  college  of  priests  having  charge  of  the  Sibylhne  books 
was  divided  between  the  two  orders. 

3.  The  interest  already  paid  upon  debts  was  to  be  deducted 
from  the  principal,  and  the  balance  to  be  paid  up  in  three 
years. 

4.  The  occupation  of  the  public  land  was  thrown  open  to 
plebeians,  but  no  person  was  to  occupy  more  than  500  jiigera 
(about  250  acres). 

5.  No  person  should  have  upon  the  public  pasture  more  than 
100  head  of  large  cattle  and  500  head  of  sheep  or  goats. 

6.  In  the  cultivation  of  great  estates  it  was  required  that  only    1 

1  The  annals  of  this  period  show  an  interregnum  of  five  years,  not  histori- 
cally to  be  depended  upon,  but  an  indication  of  the  anarchy  of  the  times. 

2  The  foundations  of  thk  temple  are  still  preserved,  between  the  Arch  of 
Septimius  Severus  and  the  'pabularium. 


76  THE    CONTEST  BETWEEN   THE    ORDERS. 

a  certain  proportion  of  slave  labor  should  be  employed ;  for  the 
rest  there  must  be  free  laborers. 
^  The  Magistracies.  —  The  chief  magistracy  was  thus  thrown 
open  to  the  plebeians,  and  with  this  the  long  contest  between 
the  orders  came  to  an  end.  It  is  true  that,  as  a  concession  to 
the  patricians,  the  consulship,  when  thrown  open  to  the  plebeians, 
was  deprived  for  a  second  time  of  an  important  part  of  its  func- 
tions, which  were  given  to  a  new  patrician  magistrate.  The 
administration  of  justice  in  civil  cases  was  put  into  the  hands  of  a 
new  magistrate  known  as  Prcetoi-;  and  the  pr?etor,  as  well  as  the 
censor,  dictator,  and  interrex,  must  be  patricians.  Also  two  patri- 
cian sediles  (called  cu7'ule  cediles')  were  elected,  to  match  the 
plebeian  ?ediles.  But  now  that  plebeians  had  been  admitted  to 
the  highest  regular  magistracy,  it  was  impossible  to  exclude  them 

I  long  from  the  inferior  ones.  Within  half  a  century  all  these  offices, 
except  that  of  interrex,  which  was  patrician  in  its  very  nature, 
were  thrown  open  to  the  plebeians,  and  shortly  after  all  the  priest- 
hoods of  importance  were  also  open  to  them.^ 

V^  The  Social  Legislation.  —  The  social  provisions  of  the  Licinian 
laws  were  less  effective.  The  unjust  law  of  debt  was  not  abolished 
or  amended,  but  a  temporary  amelioration  was  applied  to  the 
present  distresses.  The  three  last  provisions  of  the  law  were 
wisely  devised,  and  showed  a  correct  understanding  of  the  social 
dangers  ;  but  no  machinery  was  provided  for  their  execution,  and 
they  rapidly  became  a  dead  letter.  One  of  the  first  who  was 
punished  for  occupying  more  land  than  the  law  permitted,  was 
the  first  proposer  of  the  law.  Gains  Licinius.  But  notwithstand- 
ing the  inadequacy  of  these  laws,  so  far  as  the  causes  of  social 
evils  were  concerned,  the  Roman  people  now  entered  upon  so 
rapid  and  triumphant  a  career  of  victory  and  economic  prosperity, 
that  it  was  nearly  two  hundred  years  before  social  (juestions  again 

/  became  a  large  factor  in  political  controversies. 

'  These  were  the  offices  of  pontifex,  aiigur,  and  cptdones.     The  rex  sacrifi- 
^       cuius,  chief  flamens,  etc.,  were  always  patricians. 


PERIOD    OF    ITALIAN    WARS. 

CHAPTER   VI. 

THE   CONQUEST   OF   LATIUM. 

Relations  of  the  Orders.  — The  relations  between  the  patricians 
and  plebeians  during  the  thirty  years  which  followed  the  passage 
of  the  Licinian  laws  were  jealous  and  uneasy,  but  free  from  any 
open  disturbance.  It  was  natural  that  the  patricians  should  con- 
tinue to  resist  the  advance  of  plebeian  privileges,  and  on  the  other 
hand  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  plebeians  were  timid  in  the  exer- 
cise of  their  new  powers.  More  than  once  the  patrician  magis- 
trates, by  sheer  audacity  —  refusing  to  receive  votes  for  plebeian 
candidates^  —  succeeded  in  preventing  the  election  of  plebeian 
magistrates ;  the  plebeians  were  indignant,  but  helpless. 
But  they  grew  bolder  and  acquired  political  experience  ;  B.C.  339. 
and  at  last,  to  the  horror  of  the  patricians,  a  plebeian 
dictator  was  appointed,  with  a  plebeian  master  of  the  horse. 

The   Publilian  Laws  of  Philo. — The  decisive  victory  of  the 
plebeians,  definitely  securing  the  advantages  gained  by  the  Licin- 
ian Laws,  came  in  the  year  339,  when  the  plebeian  dictator,  Quin- 
tus    Publilius  Philo,  procured  the  passage  of  three   laws  of  the 
greatest  importance  to  his  order.     The  first  enlarged  the  powers 
of  the  plebeian  assembly  in  some  way  not  definitely  known;  the 
second    took    from    the    patrician    members    of   the    Senate    the 
power  of  nullifying  laws  on  the  ground  of  unconstitutionality  (p. 
39)  ;  the  third  required  that  one  of  the  two  censors  should  be 
a  plebeian.     From  this  time,  as  will  readily  appear,  the  plebeians  1 
possessed  even  greater  privileges  than  the  patricians  :  for  they  had  \ 
an  assembly  and  officers  of  their  own  from  which  patricians  were  \ 
excluded,  while  they  were  themselves  admitted  to  all  the  patrician    '' 
offices.  "^ 

iThe  presiding  magistrate  had  a  large  and  undefined  power  in  this  direction. 


78  rilE    CONQUEST   OF  LATIUM. 

Usury  Laws.  —  The  Licinian  legislation  had  not  altered  the 
unjust  laws  of  debt,  but  had  only  offered  a  temporary  remedy  for 
its  abuses ;  and  the  years  which  followed  were  full  of  complaints 
of  usurers,  and  attempts  to  regulate  the  trade  of  money-lending. 
The  legal  rate  of  interest  was  reduced  from  ten  to  five  per  cent, 
and  at  last  the  business  of  money-lending  was  forbidden.^  This 
was  one  of  those  well-meaning  but  impracticable  enactments  of 
which  the  history  of  legislation  is  full ;  it  was  probably  never 
executed,  and  at  any  rate  it  soon  became  a  dead  letter. 

Growth  of  Territory.  —  Meantime  the  Roman  power  was  stead- 
ily growing,  and  the  Roman  territory  steadily  enlarging.  The 
most  important  acquisition  of  territory  during  this  period 
B.C.  353.  wasjhe  Etruscan  city  of  Caere.  As  its  Etruscan  inhabit- 
ants were  of  foreign  blood  and  speech,  they  did  not 
receive  full  Roman  citizenship.  They  were  allowed  to  govern 
themselves  in  local  concerns,  but  not  to  take  part  in  the  public 
j  ^affairs  of  Rome.j^  This  inferior  form  of  citizenship  was  entitled 
"citizenship  without  suffrage,"  or  "Caeritan  rights,"  and  was  after- 
wards bestowed  upon  a  number  of  other  towns. 
'  The  Gallic  "Wars.  —  During  this  period  the  Gauls  resumed  their 
invasions,  and  for  many  years  gave  much  annoyance  to  the  Ro- 
mans and  other  Latins.  The  accounts  of  these  Gallic  wars  are 
enlivened  by  many  heroic  and  romantic  incidents,  which  are  no 
doubt  derived  from  family  chronicles  and  popular  songs.  Thus 
the  name  of  the  hero  Marcus  Valerius  Corvus  is  said  to  have  been 
derived  from  the  fact  that  he  fought  in  single  combat  with  a  gigan- 
tic Gaul,  and  was  assisted  by  a  raven  {corvus'),  which  fluttered  in 
the  face  of  his  antagonist,  pecked  at  his  eyes,  etc.,  and  thus  dis- 
tracted his  attention.  Titus  Manlius  Torquatus  received  his  name, 
too,  from  a  Gaul  whom  he  slew,  and  whose  necklace  {torques)  he 
stripped  from  the  dead  body  and  placed  around  his  own  neck.^ 

1  By  the  Genucian  Law,  B.C.  342. 

2  The  twisted  chain  which  the  Gauls  wore  about  the  neck  is  seen  on  the 
famous  statue  known  as  the  Dying  Gladiator,  but  which  is  now  recognized  to 
have  represented  a  wounded  Gaul,  a  work  of  the  Pergamene  period  of  art. 


L 


FIRST  SAMNITE    WAR.  79 

Treaty  with  the  Samnites.  —  The  growing  power  of  Rome  is 
evidenced  by  the  treaties  of  equal  alHance  which  she  framed  in 
these  years  with  two  powerful  neighbors,  both  of  whom  afterwards 
became  her  most  bitter  enemies.     These  were  the  Samnites  and 
the    Carthaginians.  )>The    Samnite    Confederacy,    occupying   the 
mountain   region  of  central  Italy,  was   now   the    most  powerful 
nation  of  the  Italian  race.      The  Samnites  had  not  long 
before  conquered  the  Etruscan  settlements  in  Campania,    B.C.  424. 
of  which  the  chief  town  was  Capua,  thus  giving  the  first 
blow  to  the  Etruscan  ascendancy  in  Italy.     On  the  other 
hand,  by   the  conquest  of  the  Pomptine  territory,  the     B.C.  386. 
Romans  became  neighbors  of  the  Samnites  in  Campania, 
and  the  two  nations,  in  B.C.  354,  now  entered  into  a  treaty  of 
friendship  and  alliance. 

Treaty  with  Carthage.  —  A  few  years  later  a  treaty  B.C.  348. 
was  made  with  the  Carthaginians,  at  this  time  the  greatest 
maritime  power  in  the  western  Mediterranean.  A  treaty  had  once 
before  been  made  between  Rome  and  Carthage  (p.  35),  when 
Rome  was  at  the  height  of  its  commercial  activity,  just  after  the 
expulsion  of  the  kings ;  but  for  long  years  the  attention  of  the 
Romans  had  been  engrossed  by  affairs  nearer  home,  and  the  treaty 
now  made  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  new  compact.  By 
this  treaty  the  authority  of  Rome  over  the  Latin  cities  was  recog- 
nized, and  they  were  allowed  to  trade  with  Carthage  and  the 
Carthaginian  possessions  in  Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  Corsica,  but  were 
forbidden  to  sail  beyond  the  bay  of  Carthage,  or  to  trade  in 
Spain. 

First  Samnite  War. —The  treaty  with  the  Samnites  did  not"^ 
prevent  a  war  between  the  two  nations,  which  broke  out 
only  eleven  years  later.  \  It  was  a  short  war,  and  our    B.C.  343. 
accounts  of  it  are  too  confused  and  fragmentary  to  enable 
us  to  understand  its  events  in  detail,   ^ts  most  important  result^ 
was  to  bring  the  city  of  Capua  under  the  power  of  Rome.     The 
territory  of  this  great  city  was  annexed  to  the  Roman  domain,  and 
its  inhabitants  received  the  same  rights  as  those  of  C^re  (p.  78). J 


80  THE    CONQUEST   OF  LATIUM. 

This  war  was  immediately  followed  by  another  of  much  greater 
moment,  but  extremely  obscure  in  its  causes  and  incidents. 

r  The  Latin  War.  —  The  cities  which  composed  the  Latin  Con- 
federacy had  long  been  dissatisfied  at  the  growing  preponderance 
of  Rome,  and  its  arrogant  treatment  of  its  allies.  The  conquest 
of  Veii  had  inured  only  to  the  advantage  of  Rome,  and  had  been 
followed  by  the  conquest  of  the  Pomptine  territory,  the  annexation 
of  Tusculum,  Capena,  and  Caere,  and  the  establishment  of  Latin 
colonies  (Sutrium  and  Nepete),  which  were  connected  only  with 
Rome.^  The  triumph  of  Rome  over  the  Samnites,  and  the  annex- 
ations of  territory  in  Campania,  excited  still  greater  alarm  among 
the  Latins,  and  they  made  an  effort  to  secure  fair  treatment  before 
it  should  be  too  late.  First  they  demanded  that  half  the  Senate 
and  one  of  the  two  consuls  should  be  Latins ;  and  when  this 
demand  was  rejected,  they  tried  to  enforce  it  by  war.  This  war, 
too,  was  short  and  decisive ;  the  principal  battle  was  fought  at 
Trifanum  in  Campania,  and  the  war  was  ended  two  years  later, 
B.C.  340. 

Dissolution  of  the  Latin  Confederacy.  —  The  Latin  War,  short 
and  obscure  as  it  was,  marks  the  most  important  era  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Roman  policy.  By  it  the  hegemony  or  leadership  of 
Rome  was  converted  into  an  empi7'e  {imperiuni).  The  Latin 
Confederacy  was  dissolved  :  four  of  its  members — Tibur,  Praeneste, 
Cora,  and  Laurentum  —  were  left  independent,  but  forbidden  to 
enter  into  any  alliances  with  one  another,  while  Aricia,  Lanuvium, 
Pedum,  and  Nomentum  lost  their  independence  and  were  annexed 
to  Rome.^  But  the  treatment  which  these  received  was  liberal 
and  magnanimous.  They  were  associated  with  Rome  on  terms  of 
perfect  equality  ;  their  territory  became  part  of  the  Ager  Romanus, 
and  their  citizens  became  Roman  plebeians ;  while  in  their  own 

jtowns  they  continued  to  exercise  full  powers  of  self-government  in 

1  These  later  colonies  did  not  belong  to  the  Latin  Confederacy. 

2  Labicum,  Pometia,  and  Tusculum  had  been  annexed  before,  and  Ardea 
had  been  made  a  Latin  colony;  Velitriv,  originally  a  Volscian  town,  received 
Cceritan  riirhts. 


THE  ACER  ROMANUS  AFTER  THE  LATIN  WAR,  B.  C.  338. 


SCALE  OF  MILES 


0  5  10 


I  J  The  Ager  Romanus. 

The  dates  annexed  to  toivns  are  those  of  their  annexation. 

I  I  Latin  Colonics. 

The  dates  are  those  of  their  foundaliim. 


82  THE    CONQUEST   OF  LATIUM. 

local  concerns.^  Thus  their  inhabitants  received  in  substance  all 
that  they  had  asked  for,  but  in  a  more  advantageous  form.  They 
had  demanded  half  of  the  Senate  and  half  of  the  magistrates,  which 
would  have  made  a  two-headed  state.  It  was  far  better  to  be 
fully  incorporated  with  Rome,  and  thus  maintain  the  unity  and 
integrity  of  the  body  politic. 

Extension  of  Latium.  —  At  the  same  time  that  Latium  was 
annexed  to  Rome,  the  towns  further  along  the  coast  —  Fundi  and 
Formise  —  were  also  annexed  as  municipia  of  the  second  grade, 
possessing  Cseritan  rights  —  with  local  self-government,  but  with- 
out Roman  suffrage.  By  this  the  territory  of  Rome  was  made  to 
extend  unbroken  to  its  Campanian  possessions,  and  from  this  time 
the  name  Latium  embraced  the  whole  country  as  far  as  Campania, 
from  which  it  was  separated  by  the  river  Vulturnus. 
'^  Maritime  Colonies.  —  Antium  was  treated  differently 

B.C.  338.  from  the  other  conquered  towns,  and  was  organized  in  a 
manner  which  became  the  type  of  a  new  class  of  muni- 
cipality, the  Maritime  or  Roman  Colony.  The  extension  of  the 
Roman  possessions  along  the  coast  made  it  necessary  to  establish 
naval  stations,  by  planting  at  suitable  points  bodies  of  colonists  to 
occupy  the  soil  as  settlers,  at  the  same  time  holding  themselves  in 
readiness  to  defend  the  coast.^  Antium  was  the  earliest  of  these. 
The  maritime  colonies  thus  formed  resembled  the  military  colonies 
of  the  inland ;  only,  while  the  citizens  who  went  to  occupy  the 
military  posts  gave  up  their  Roman  citizenship  and  became  Latins, 
the  maritime  colonies  were  reckoned  a  part  of  the  city  of  Rome, 
and  the  colonists  remained  fully  qualified  Roman  citizens. 

'  1  A  town  annexed  to  Rome  on  these  terms,  losing  its  sovereignty  and 
becoming  ?.  part  of  the  Roman  state,  but  retaining  self-government  in  local 
concerns,  was  called  a  municipitim.  This  device,  the  municipality,  for 
combining  local  self-government  with  imperial  relations,  is  the  most  important 
contribution  made  by  Rome  to  political  science.  Towns  possessing  Cceritan 
l^^rights  composed  an  inferior  class  of  municipia. 

2  It  was  not  strictly  a  new  type,  for  it  was  organized  on  the  model  of  Ostia 
(pp.  12  and  17).  But  it  now  became  a  regular  policy.  Tarracina  was  founded 
B.C.  329,  Minturnce  and  Sinuessa  296,  and  others  followed. 


THE  ROMAN  FORUM.  83 

Adornment  of  the  Forum.  —  The  sea-port  of  Antium  was 
thus  converted  into  a  maritime  colony  of  Rome ;  and  in  token 
of  the  victory  and  of  the  new  pohcy  of  which  it  was  an  example, 
the  ships  of  its  navy  were  broken  up  and  their  beaks  {rostra) 
conveyed  to  Rome,  where  they  were  used  to  ornament  the 
speaker's  stand,  opposite  the  Senate-house,  on  the  line  between 
the  Comitium  and  the  Forum.  From  this  time  the  speaker's  stand 
was  known  as  the  Rostra.  This  was  the  work  of  the 
plebeian  consul  Gaius  Maenius,  who  also  erected  a  column  B.C.  339. 
upon  the  Comitium,  known  as  the  Maenian  column,  at 
which  the  poHce  officers  punished  wrong-dealers,  and  which  also 
came  to  be  used  as  an  advertising  board,  to  post  the  names  of 
dehnquent  debtors. 

Relief  of  the  Forum.  —  This  same  Maenius  appears 
to  have  been  the  first  who,  in  his  censorship,  undertook  B.C.  318. 
systematically  to  give  the  Forum  some  regularity  and 
elegance  as  a  public  square.  It  was  at  first  a  bare  open  space, 
where  country  people  brought  their  produce  to  sell,  and  the 
praetor  sat  on  his  curule  chair  to  administer  justice  in  the  midst 
of  the  crowd.  In  the  course  of  time  the  cattle  market  {Forum 
Boarium)  and  vegetable  market  {Forum  Holitorium)  had  been 
established  near  the  river,  and  the  Great  Forum  left  for  more 
reputable  trade.  Booths  had  been  built  along  both  sides  of  it, 
which  rudely  enclosed  the  space ;  and  now  Maenius  required  these 
booths  to  be  made  more  regular  and  shapely,  and  constructed 
upon  their  tops  some  stagings  called  itiaeniaiiae ,  which  commanded 
a  view  of  the  Forum,  and  were  let  to  spectators  when  games  and 
other  exhibitions  were  given  in  the  Forum.  The  Forum  became 
from  this  time  more  and  more  the  centre  of  political  life,  as  well 
as  of  judicial  proceedings,  and  of  such  branches  of  business  as 
those  of  brokers,  bankers,  and  jewellers. 


84  THE   CONQUEST  OF  ITALY, 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   CONQUEST  OF   ITALY. 

I.   The  Second  Samnite  War. 

/  The  Samnite  Wars.  —  The  First  Samnite  War  and  the  Latin 
^  War,  by  very  greatly  enlarging  the  territory  of  the  republic,  by 
dissolving  the  Latin  Confederacy,  and  by  converting  the  leader- 
ship of  Rome  in  Latium  into  a  sovereignty  over  Latium,  form  the 
most  important  era  which  we  have  yet  reached  in  tracing  the 
growth  of  the  Roman  empire.     There  now  followed  a  series  of 
three  wars,  known  as  the  Second  and  Third  Samnite  Wars,  and 
the  War  with  Pyrrhus,  the  result  of  which  was  to  expand  the 
sovereignty  over  Latium  into  a  sovereignty  over  all  Italy.    These 
three  wars  occupied,  with  brief  intervals  of  peace,  a  period  of 
more  than  fifty  years ;  and  with  the  final  defeat  of  Pyr- 
B.C.  275.    rhus  in  the  battle  of  Beneventum,  the  conquest  of  Italy 
\_  may  be  said  to  have  been  completed. 

Romans  and  Samnites.  —  The  events  which  we  have  described 
had  made  Rome  one  of  the  two  foremost  powers  of  Italy,  having 
no  formidable  rival  left  but  Samnium  j  for  Etruria  had  been  losing 
strength  for  nearly  a  century,  and  was  no  longer  a  match  for 
her  warhke  neighbor.  The  annexations  of  territory  made  by 
Rome  had  brought  her  into  immediate  contact  with  the  Samnites, 
and  war  could  hardly  fail  to  follow.  In  this  war  the  combatants 
were  nearly  matched.  In  ambition,  vigor,  and  martial  qualities 
they  were  perhaps  equal.  In  population  and  extent  of  territory, 
and  therefore  in  warlike  resources,  the  Samnites  were  superior ; 
but  this  superiority  was  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  advan- 
tages which  the  Romans  derived  from  their  greater  power  of 
concentration.     The  Samnites  formed  a  loosely  knit  confederacy. 


THE   SECOND   SAMNITE    WAR. 


85 


spread  over  a  large  surface  of  territory,  and  incapable  of  prompt 
and  sustained  co-operation.  All  the  resources  of  Rome,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  concen- 
trated within  the  walls  of 
the  city,  and  lodged  in 
the  hands  of  magistrates 
who  for  the  time  being 
exercised  almost  abso- 
lute authority.  At  a  later 
time,  when  the  Romans 
were  confronted  with 
generals  like  Pyrrhus 
and  Hannibal,  who  held 
command  uninterrupt- 
edly year  after  year,  their 
annual  change  of  magis- 
trates proved  a  source 
of  great  weakness ;  but 
their  present  antagonists 
were  in  this  respect  no 
better  off  than  them- 
selves. With  this  ad- 
vantage of  centralized 
power,  it  is  no  wonder 
that  Rome  triumphed  in 
the  Samnite  Wars. 

Second  Samnite  War. — The  Second  Samnite  War  began  B.C.  327 
and  ended  304,  when  a  peace  was  made  which  was  hardly  more 
than  a  truce,  for  war  broke  out  again  in  six  years.  By  this  peace 
the  Romans  gained  no  new  territory,  although  they  had  from  time 
to  time,  in  the  course  of  the  hostihties,  founded  military  posts 
(Latin  colonies)  in  the  enemies'  country ;  but  these  towns  were 
of  Latin  nationality,  not  subject  to  Rome,  although  closely  allied 
with  it.  In  306  the  Hernican  confederacy,  which  had  joined  the 
alliance  against  Rome,  was  dissolved,  as  that  of  the  Latins  had 


SAMNITE    WARRIOR.      (From  a  Vase.) 


86  THE    CONQUEST   OF  ITALY. 

been  a  few  years  before,  and  most  of  its  towns  were  annexed  to 
Rome  ;  but  three  of  them/  when  offered  the  privilege  of  complete 
Roman  citizenship,  declined  it  with  thanks,  preferring  their  humble 
independence. 

Quintus  Fabius  Maximus.  —  The  greatest  Roman  of  this  period 
was  Quintus  Fabius,  called  Maximus  (greatest)  because  of  his 
services  to  the  state.  He  was  a  bitter  personal  enemy  of  Papirius 
Cursor,  and  a  warm  friend  of  Decius  Mus,  whom  he  had  as  col- 
league in  several  high  offices.     The  hostility  between  Papirius  and 

Fabius  came  about  in  this  way.  In  one  of  the  early  years 
B.C.  325.     of  the  war  Papirius,  then  the  foremost  man  in  Rome,  was 

dictator,  and  the  youthful  Fabius  was  his  master  of  horse.- 
It  happened  that  the  dictator  was  called  to  Rome  on  some  neces- 
sary business,  and  before  leaving  gave  strict  orders  that  there 
should  be  no  fighting  in  his  absence.  This  order  the  high-spirited 
Fabius  disobeyed,  and  gained  a  signal  victory  over  the  enemy. 
Papirius  was  a  strict  disciplinarian.  When  he  learned  of  the 
disobedience  of  Fabius  he  promptly  hastened  to  the  camp,  leaving 
his  business  at  Rome  unfinished,  sternly  summoned  the  offender 
before  him  and  sentenced  him  to  immediate  execution.  The  army, 
elated  with  its  victory,  and  proud  of  its  gallant  young  commander, 
rose  in  mutiny ;  Fabius  was  rescued  and  carried  to  Rome  where, 
after  long  and  stubborn  resistance,  Papirius  at  last,  at  the  entreaty 
of  the  Senate,  agreed  that  the  ends  of  justice  had  been  reached 
by  the  condemnation  of  Fabius,  and  consented  to  exercise  his 
prerogative  of  mercy  by  sparing  his  Iffe. 

Lucius   Papirius   Cursor.  —  But   the  two  men  were 
B.C.  310.    never  afterwards  friends.     A  few  years  later  Fabius,  as 

consul,  was  called  upon  to  appoint  Papirius  dictator; 
he  neither  answered  the  messengers  of  the  Senate,  nor  even  looked 
at  them,  and  when  he  had  performed  the  required  duty,  gloomily 
rejected  their  thanks.     Papirius  was  a  typical  Roman  of  his  time, 

1  These  were  Aletrium,  Ferentinum,  and  Veruliie. 

2  The  master  of  horse  {jnagister  equitum)  was  second  in  command  to  the 
dictator. 


THE    CAUDINE  FORKS.  87 

—  of  mighty  physical  strength,  untiring,  never  defeated,  inexor- 
able, and  at  the  same  time  with  a  certain  grim  humor.  On  one 
occasion  a  body  of  contingents  from  Praeneste  had  not  supported 
him  to  his  mind.  He  summoned  their  commander  to  his  tent, 
and  called  to  the  lictor  to  bring  an  axe ;  and  as  the  officer  stood 
pale  and  trembling,  expecting  immediate  execution,  he  ordered  a 
troublesome  stump  to  be  hewn  away ;  then  dismissed  the  offender 
with  severe  reproof. 

The  Caudine  Forks.  —  The  most  striking  incident  of  this  war- 
was  the  capture  of  the  entire  Roman  army,  in  the  year  321,  at 
the  Caudine  Forks,  a  pass  in  the  Apennines,  a  few  miles  beyond 
Capua.i  -pj^g  successful  Samnite  general,  it  is  said,  Gaius  Pontius, 
sent  to  ask  the  advice  of  his  father,  an  aged  and  experienced 
commander,  as  to  what  he  should  do  with  the  captured  army. 
His  advice  was  to  dismiss  it  unharmed;  and,  when  this  was 
rejected,  he  recommended  that  every  man  should  be  put  to  death, 

—  by  the  first  course  he  would  earn  their  gratitude,  by  the  other 
deprive  them  of  the  power  of  vengeance.  But  Pontius,  neglecting 
his  father's  advice,  determined  to  subject  his  captives  to  the 
deepest  humiUation,  by  sending  them  under  the  yoke,^  the  greatest 
disgrace  which  could  be  inflicted;  then  forced  the  leaders  to 
agree  to  a  disadvantageous  peace,  and  sent  them  home.  But  by 
the  Roman  law  no  treaty  was  valid  unless  accepted  by  a  vote  of 
the  people.  The  Senate  therefore  refused  to  recognize  the  agree- 
ment, and  ordered  the  consuls  to  be  surrendered  to  the  enemy, 
as  amends  for  the  violation  of  the  agreement  which  they  had  per- 
sonally made.  Pontius,  as  was  natural,  indignantly  refused  to  accept 
such  an  atonement  for  a  broken  engagement,  and  the  war  went 
on  with  increased  bitterness. 

1  The  locality  of  this  event  has  been  a  subject  of  great  controversy.  The 
Furculm  Caudina;  were  probably  at  the  pass  of  Arpaja,  where  the  village  of 
Forchia  still  preserves  the  name;  and  the  army  was  entrapped  in  the  valley 
beyond  this  and  Montesarchio,  which  town  is  upon  the  site  of  the  ancient 
Caudium. 

2  The  yoke  was  constructed  by  fixing  two  spears  in  the  ground,  and  laying 
a  third  over  their  top ;  under  this  the  whole  army  was  obliged  to  pass. 


88  THE    CONQUEST   OF  ITALY. 

War  with  the  Etruscans.  —  After  the  war  with  the  Samnites 

had  continued  for  a  number  of  years,  hostilities  broke 
B.C.  311.    out  with  the  Etruscans  also.     This  once  powerful  nation 

was  now  in  a  state  of  decline,  and  had  even  suffered  its 
two  southernmost  cities,  Veii  and  Caere,  to  be  conquered  by  Rome. 
The  conquest  of  these  cities  had  extended  the  Roman  frontier 
about  thirty  miles  to  the  north,  where  a  rugged  mountain  range, 
known  as  the  Ciminian  Forest,  separated  the  two  nations.  This 
frontier  was  protected  by  the  military  colonies  of  Sutrium  and 
Nepete,  founded  just  after  the  conquest  of  Veii  (p.  6^). 

The  Ciminian  Forest. — The  Etruscans,  passing  through 
B.C.  310.     the  forest,  undertook  the  siege  of  Sutrium.     The  consul 

Quintus  Fabius,  advancing  against  them,  relieved  the 
city,  drove  the  enemy  before  him,  and  then  pursued  them  with 
all  his  forces  through  the  forest,  —  a  region  almost  unknown  to  the 
Romans,  —  gained  a  brilliant  victory,  and  then  returned  in  triumph. 
There  was  great  consternation  and  almost  a  panic  at  Rome  when 
the  daring  consul  disappeared  with  his  army  in  this  unknown 
wilderness ;  but  his  audacity  was  justified  by  the  results.  This 
was  the  last  campaign  of  any  moment  ever  carried  on  by  the 
Romans  against  the  Etruscans. 

The  Disqualified  Classes. — The  period  of  this  war  is  marked 

by  political  changes  of  great  importance.  The  Publilian 
B.C.  338.     Laws  (p.  77)  had  gained  for  the  rural  plebeians  nearly 

all  the  rights  which  they  needed,  and  placed  them  prac- 
tically on  an  equality  with  the  patricians.  But  the  plebeians  of  the 
city  were  still  under  great  disqualifications.  None  but  land-owners 
could  belong  to  the  tribes,  and  therefore  to  the  tribal  assemblies  : 
by  this  not  only  the  rabble  of  the  city,  but  the  well-to-do  and 
reputable  traders  and  handicraftsmen,  were  excluded  from  pohtical 
privileges.  In  the  centuriate  assembly  five  centuries  were  provided 
for  these  ;  but  the  tribal  organization  made  no  provision  for  them  at 
all.  Worst  of  all  was  the  condition  of  the  freedmen,  or  emancipated 
slaves,  a  class  which  rendered  the  chief  part  of  those  professional 
and  administrative  services  which  are  among  the  most  important 


THE    CENSORSHIP   OF  APPIUS   CLAUDIUS.  89 

and  highly  paid  at  the  present  day,  such  as  teachers,  physicians, 
secretaries,  and  stewards.  For  it  must  be  understood  that  the 
slaves  of  the  Romans  were  not  an  inferior,  semi-barbarous  class, 
but  contained  many  persons  superior  to  their  masters  in  education 
and  culture,  —  Greeks,  Sicilians,  Carthaginians,  and,  perhaps 
already,  Asiatics. 

Censorship   of    Appius   Claudius:    1.   The   Senate.  —  Appius 

Claudius,  a  patrician  of  high  rank,  came  forward  as  the  champion 
of  these  disquahfied  classes,  and  by  his  innovations  made 
his  censorship  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  city.  The  B.C.  312, 
censors  had  been  recently  entrusted  with  the  duty  of 
drawing  up  the  Senate-list,  which  had  before  devolved  upon  the 
consuls.  In  preparing  his  list  Appius  included  the  names  of  some 
sons  of  freedmen.  It  struck  the  conservative  and  aristocratic 
Romans  with  horror,  and  his  colleague  in  the  censorship  refused  to 
act  with  him ;  so  that,  by  a  stretch  of  audacity,  Appius  conducted 
his  censorship  alone,  in  violation  of  all  the  principles  of  the  con- 
stitution.^ He  even  continued  to  exercise  the  office  after  the 
expiration  of  the  eighteen  months,  on  the  ground  that  the  election 
was  properly  (as  it  had  been  originally)  for  the  entire  lustrum,  of 
five  years.  But  while  the  censor  had  the  power  to  draw  up  the 
list  of  senators,  he  could  not  oblige  the  consul  to  accept  it.  The 
consuls  of  the  following  year  refused  to  recognize  the  validity  of 
the  changes  made  by  Appius,  and  convened  the  senate  by  the  list 
of  the  previous  year. 

2.    Reorganization   of  the   Tribes.  — A  second   revolutionary 

measure  of  this  censorship  was  almost  as  short  Hved.  By  a  single 
act  of  authority  as  censor,  he  deprived  landed  property  of  its  ex- 
clusive right  to  determine  political  qualifications,  and  based  these 
qualifications  upon  the  possession  of  property  of  any  kind ;  the 
right  of  every  .citizen  to  vote  and  to  bear  arms  was  to  be  determined 
by  the  entire  amount  of  his  property,  not  by  his  landed  property 

1  The  principle  of  collcgiality,  by  which  two  colleagues  exercised  co-equal 
powers  —  as  consuls,  censors,  military  tril)unes,  etc. — was  fundamental  in  the 
institutions  of  the  republic. 


90  THE    CONQUEST   OE  ITALY. 

alone.  This  rule  continued  in  operation  until  the  cen- 
B.C.  304.     sorship  of  Quintus  Fabius,  eight  years  later,  who  left  all 

the  citizens  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  suffrage  which  they 
had  obtained,  but  for  future  citizenship  established  a  distinction 
between  the  four  city  and  the  twenty-seven^  rural  tribes.  The  rural 
tribes  were,  as  heretofore,  to  contain  only  land-owners ;  all  other 
citizens  were  to  be  rated  and  to  vote  in  the  city  tribes,  which  now 
came  to  be  regarded  as  inferior  in  rank  to  the  others.  By  this 
conser\^ative  act  Fabius  earned  the  title  of  Maximus  (greatest) . 

3.  Public  Works.  —  Appius  Claudius  was  equally  distinguished 
for  the  system  of  public  works  inaugurated  in  his  censorship. 
He  brought  to  Rome  the  first  regular  supply  of  water,  from  a 
point  seven  or  eight  miles  distant,  by  the  so-called  Appian  Aque- 
duct. The  system  thus  begun  was  carried  out  by  his  successors 
at  various  times,  so  that  Rome  became  in  antiquity,  as  it  is  still, 
distinguished  for  the  excellence  and  abundance  of  its  water  supply. 
He  also  built  the  first  military  road,  the  famous  Appian  Way, 
from  Rome  to  Capua,  most  of  the  way  along  the  coast,  the  whole 
of  the  intervening  country  being  now  Roman  territory.  This  road 
was  so  solidly  and  substantially  built  that  long  stretches  of  it  are 
still  preserved  in  good  condition.  The  system  of  military  roads 
commenced  by  Appius  Claudius  was  also  continued  and  extended 
by  his  successors,  until  all  Italy,  and,  indeed,  the  provinces  also,- 
were  covered  with  a  network  of  well-built  highways  connecting 
with  the  city  the  chief  colonies  and  aUied  towns. 

4.  Religious  Innovations.  —  Appius  Claudius  was  no  less  an 
innovator  in  religious  matters.  The  worship  of  Hercules  was 
until  his  time  a  gentile  cult,  conducted  by  the  two  families  of  the 
Potitii  and  Pinarii ;  at  his  solicitation  the  Potitii  sold  the  ritual, 
and  it  was  made  a  public  cult  administered  by  slaves.  It  was 
believed  that,  as  a  consequence  of  this  act  of  impiety,  the  Potitian 

1  This  was  the  present  number  of  tribes;  two  were  added  after  the  Second 
Samnite  War,  and  two  after  the  First  Punic. 

2  Roman  milestones,  marking  a  Roman  military  road",  have  recently  been 
discovered  in  the  Syrian  desert. 


INNOVATIONS   OF  APPIUS   CLAUDIUS.  91 

gens  speedily  died  out.  In  his  censorship  the  guild  of  pipers  was 
deprived  of  an  old  privilege  of  banqueting  in  the  temple  of  Jupi- 
ter. Indignant  at  the  affront,  the  entire  guild  retired  to  Tibur, 
and  refused  to  return.  As  its  services  were  indispensable  in  the 
religious  ceremonies,  the  magistrates  were  in  great  embarrassment. 
No  nation  was  ever  more  precise  than  the  Romans  in  the  exercise 
of  religious  formalities,  and  now,  as  in  a  mediaeval  jnterdict,  neither 
festival,  nor  sacrifice,  nor  funeral  could  be  duly  performed.  At 
last  the  Tiburtines  devised  the  plan  of  making  the  pipers  drunk, 
loading  them  in  carts,  and  conveying  them  in  this  condition  to 
Rome.  When  they  woke  from  their  debauch  and  found  them- 
selves upon  the  Forinn,  they  readily  agreed  to  remain,  but  upon 
conditions  which  their  recent  experience  forced  the  Romans  to 
accept.  Their  former  privilege  was  restored  to  the  pipers,  and 
they  also  received  the  right  every  13th  ot  June  to  go  through 
the  streets  in  a  procession  like  a  carnival,  —  tipsy,  disguised  with 
masks  and  grotesque  garments,  and  making  all  the  noise  they 
pleased. 

Gnseus  Flavins.  —  Another  important  innovation  of  this  period 
was  the  publication  of  the  formulas  of  legal  procedure,  together 
with  the  calendar  of  court  days,  by  Gnaeus  Flavins,  a  freedman 
of  Appius  Claudius.  This  information  had  be^n  until  this  time 
in  the  sole  possession  of  the  patricians,  who,  by  this  exclusive 
knowledge,  had  a  great  advantage  in  the  administration  of  the  law. 
Flavins,  being  a  clerk  in  the  employ  of  the  aediles,  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  make  himself  acquainted  with  these  secrets ; 
and  in  the  year  of  the  peace  he  was  himself  chosen  B.C.  304. 
curule  aedile,  the  first  person  of  his  rank  ever  elected  to 
a  curule  office.  In  all  these  things  Appius  Claudius  showed  him- 
self indifferent  to  precedent  and  privilege,  and  a  favorer  of  the 
disqualified  classes  in  the  city.  As  to  the  rural  plebeians,  on  the 
other  hand,  who  were  now  rapidly  becoming  the  most  powerful 
body  in  the  state,  he  was  their  active  opponent ;  his  controversy 
with  their  leader,  Manius  Curius  Dentatus,  was  the  last  incident  in 
the  long  struggle  between  patricians  and  plebeians. 


92  THE    CONQUEST   OF  ITALY. 


II.    The  Third  Samnite  War. 

Union  of  Italy  against  Rome.  —  The  Third  Samnite 
B.C.  298.  War  was  an  uprising  of  the  Italian  nations  to  prevent,  if 
not  too  late,  the  threatening  domination  of  Rome,  which 
the  last  war  had  proved  to  be  the  strongest  power  in  Italy.  The 
Etruscans,  Umbrians,  and  Gauls,  as  well  as  the  lesser  nations  of 
central  Italy,  united  under  the  lead  of  the  Samnites ;  only  the 
Lucanians  stood  with  Rome.  The  war  was  short,  ending  in  290 
with  the  complete  discomfiture  of  the  Samnites.  By  the  treaty 
of  peace  now  made,  as  by  that  of  304,  the  Romans  abstained  from 
adding  any  large  amount  of  Samnite  territory  to  their  domain, 
contenting  themselves  with  planting  Latin  colonies  at  important 
military  points.  The  colony  of  Venusia,  established  at  the  close 
of  the  war  on  the  borders  of  Apulia,  was  of  unprecedented  pro- 
portions, consisting  of  20,000  settlers.  Its  size  and  its  situation, 
in  the  rear  of  Samnium,  made  it  the  chief  agency  in  holding  the 
Samnites  in  subjection,  and  it  was  an  important  strategic  point 
in  the  war  with  Hannibal. 

Battle  of  Sentinum.  —  The  chief  battle  of  the  war  was  fought 
at  Sentinum,  in  Umbria,  in  the  year  295.  The  consuls  of  this 
year  were  the  tried  friends  and  colleagues,  Quintus  Fabius  Maxi- 
mus  and  Publius  Decius  Mus.  Fortunately  for  the  Romans,  a 
diversion  in  Etruria  had  led  the  Etruscan  troops  to  abandon  their 
allies  and  hasten  to  protect  their  homes ;  for  some  reason  the 
Umbrians  too  took  no  part  in  the  battle,  and  the  Samnites  and 
Gauls  were  left  alone.  Even  as  it  was,  the  battle  was  for  a  long 
time  doubtful.  Fabius  held  his  own  against  the  Samnites,  but  the 
impetuous  Gauls  threw  into  confusion  the  left  wing,  commanded 
by  Decius.  The  defeated  consul  then  resolved,  according  to 
ancestral  custom,  to  devote  himself  to  the  infernal  gods,  and  thus 
by  the  sacrifice  of  himself  to  gain  a  victory  for  his  country.  Calling 
upon  the  pontiff,  Marcus  Livius,  who  was  present,  to  dictate  to 
him  the  formula  of  self-devotion,  he  repeated  the  words  in  due 


THE    THIRD   SAMNITE    WAR.  93 

order,  calling  down  the  wrath  of  the  gods  upon  himself  and  also 
upon  the  enemy ;  then  spurred  his  horse  into  the  thickest  of  the 
enemy,  and  fell  pierced  by  their  weapons.  His  death  had  the 
desired  effect.  His  soldiers  were  incited  to  renewed  efforts,  and 
soon  drove  the  Gauls  before  them  in  flight.^ 

Annexations  of  Territory.  —  The  battle  of  Sentinum  was  the 
most  considerable  in  the  whole  course  of  the  Samnite  wars.  Hos- 
tilides  continued,  however,  for  five  years  longer.  In  the  year  290 
the  consulship  was  held  by  the  distinguished  Manius  Curius  Den- 
tatus,  who  inflicted  a  final  defeat  upon  the  Samnites,  and  after- 
wards subdued  the  Sabines,  who  had  joined  with  the  enemies  of 
Rome.  For  these  victories  he  celebrated  two  triumphs  in  the 
same  year.  The  Samnites  were  left  in  possession  of  their  inde- 
pendence, and  became  allies  of  Rome.  The  Sabines  were  forced 
to  become  Roman  citizens,  although  they  did  not  receive 
the  right  of  suffrage  until  several  years  later  :  their  terri-  B.C.  268. 
tory  became  a  part  of  the  ager  Romanus,  which  was 
now  extended  to  the  Adriatic  Sea.  Thus  the  Roman  territory, 
stretching  in  a  broad  belt  from  sea  to  sea,  wholly  cut  off  the 
Samnites  and  allied  nations  to  the  south  from  the  Umbrians, 
Gauls,  and  Etruscans  to  the  north.^  The  Latin  colony  of  Hatria 
was  founded  at  this  point  upon  the  Adriatic  Sea,  and  a  few  years 
later  another  large  district  upon  this  sea,  the  Picene  territory 
(^Picenum),  was  annexed  by  Rome. 

Manius  Curius  Dentatus.  —  Manius  Curius  was  a  peasant  by 
birth,  and  may  be  taken  as  a  typical  example  of  a  Roman  of  the 
old  stamp.  During  the  generation  in  which  he  was  the  leading 
statesman  and  general  of  Rome,  he  never  abandoned  the  interests 

1  It  is  related  that  the  father  of  Decius  had  devoted  himself  in  a  similar 
manner  in  a  battle  in  the  Latin  War,  B.C.  340.  There  is  no  impossibility,  but 
on  the  other  hand  a  high  degree  of  probability,  that  the  son  was  inspired  to 
his  heroic  act  by  his  father's  example;  but  the  accounts  of  the  Latin  War 
are  confused  and  full  of  fabulous  detail,  while  the  battle  of  Sentinum  is  a 
thoroughly  authentic  event. 

2  See  map  of  Central  Italy  at  the  time  of  the  Second  Punic  War. 


94  THE    CONQUEST   OF  ITALY. 

of  his  class,  which  he  defended,  at  the  very  beginning  of  his  pubhc 
career,  against  Appius  Claudius,  the  champion  of  patrician  privi- 
leges (p.  91).  When  territory  was  annexed  by  Rome,  he  secured 
a  large  amount  for  the  purpose  of  assignments  (p.  49)  to  the  sol- 
diers of  the  war,  refusing  to  take  for  himself  more  than  the  share 
of  a  common  soldier.  Like  Appius  Claudius,  he  distinguished 
himself  by  the  extent  and  beneficence  of  his  public  works.  Among 
these  was  the  canal  which  drained  a  swampy  district  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Reate,  conducting  its  waters  into  the  river  Nar  by  a 
precipitous  descent  which  we  know  as  the  beautiful  waterfall  of 
Terni ;  also  the  second  Roman  aqueduct,  the  A7iio  Vetus,  forty- 
three  miles  long.  He  brought  to  a  triumphant  end  not  only  the 
war  with  the  Samnites,  but  also  that  with  Pyrrhus.  After 
B.C.  275.  this  crowning  victory,  he  retired  to  his  farm  in  the  Sabine 
country,  where  he  lived  the  life  of  a  common  peasant. 
Gaius  Fabricius.  —  Next  to  Dentatus  as  a  typical  Roman,  and 
perhaps  even  more  distinguished,  was  Gaius  Fabricius,  a  Hernican 
peasant,  who  by  ability  and  integrity  raised  himself  to  a  foremost 
place  among  the  public  men  of  his  time.  He  was  younger  than 
Curius,  the  period  of  his  activity  being  that  of  the  war  with  Pyr- 
rhus ;  and,  while  a  skilful  and  successful  soldier,  he  achieved  his 
principal  distinction  as  a  statesman  and  diplomatist.  The  straight- 
forward and  incorruptible  republican  proved  himself  (like  Franklin 
and  Jay  at  the  court  of  Paris),  a  match  for  the  subtle  Greeks. 
"^'  The  Hortensian  Law.  —  The  long  succession  of  wars,  lasting 
with  intervals  over  fifty  years,  had  brought  the  Roman  peasantry 
to  a  state  of  suffering  and  destitution  similar  to  that  which  followed 
the  Gallic  invasion,  and  this  was  not  adequately  relieved  even 
by  the  numerous  colonies  and  the  assignments  of  land  made  by 
Dentatus.  Our  knowledge  of  these  events  is  very  scanty.^  All  that 
is  certain  is  that  in  the  year  286  a  third  secession  of  the  Plebs 
took  place,  this  time  to  Mount  Janiculum.  By  the  influence  of 
Dentatus,  Quintus  Hortensius  was  made  dictator,  and  proposed 

1  There  is  a  gap  in  Livy's  history  from  near  the  end  of  the  Second  Samnite 
to  the  beginning  of  the  Second  Punic  War. 


THE  ROMAN  CONSTITUTION.  95 

the  so-called  Hortensian  Law,  by  which  the  plebeian  assembly 
received  full  and  uncontrolled  power  to  pass  laws  which  should  be 
valid  for  the  whole  body  of  citizens.  Henceforth  this  assembly, 
presided  over  by  the  tribunes,  became  the  usual  law-making  body. 

The  Roman  Institutions.  —  The  institutions  of  the  republic 
had  now  reached  their  highest  point  of  energy  and  efficiency. 
The  contest  between  patricians  and  plebeians  was  at  an  end,  and 
the  two  orders  were  on  a  practical  equality.  The  patricians,  it  is 
true,  were  still  alone  eligible  to  certain  priesthoods  of  great  dignity 
and  antiquity ;  but  on  the  other  hand  the  plebeians  had  what  was 
far  more  important,  the  sole  right  to  hold  the  offices  of  tribune 
and  plebeian  aedile,  and  to  vote  in  their  tribal  assembly.  The 
assembly  of  citizens  —  whether  organized  by  tribes  or  by  centuries 
—  was  by  law  the  controlling  authority  in  the  state,  and  the 
magistrates  exercised  in  their  terms  of  office  an  almost  unlimited 
executive  and  administrative  power.  But  these  assemblies  and 
magistrates  were  themselves  hardly  more  than  the  organs  of  the 
Senate,  a  body  which,  by  unwritten  law,  was  gradually  gathering 
all  power  into  its  own  hands. 

The  Senate.  —  The  Senate  was  composed  of  three  ..hundred- 
members,  the  list  being  made  out  by  the  censors  from  lustrum  to 
lustrum,  and  containing  first  the  names  of  all  who  had  held  high 
office,  and  then  of  such  others  as  were  deemed  competent.^  They 
held  their  position  for  life,  unless  degraded  by  succeeding  censors  ; 
and  it  is  clear  that  a  body  of  men  like  this,  which  embodied  all 
the  experience  and  tried  statesmanship  of  the  community,  would 
exhibit  a  clearness  of  purpose  and  a  persistency  of  policy  which 
would  easily  control  the  yearly  changing  magistrates,  and  through 
them  the  assembhes  of  the  people. 

The  Worship  of  -^sculapius.  —  In  spite  of  the  elevation  of  the 
city  above  the  unhealthy  country  around^  and  the  draining  of  its 

^  Only  those  who  had  held  office  were  fully  qualified  senators;  the  others, 
relatively  inexperienced  in  public  business,  had  a  right  to  vote,  but  not  to 
debate.  As  voting  was  done  by  going  into  the  lobbies  (^pedibus  ire),  these 
were  known  z.'a  pedarii. 


96  THE    CONQUEST   OF  ITALY. 

low-lying  parts  by  the  great  sewers,  it  was  exposed  to  numerous 
pestilences,  by  the  closeness  of  the  streets,  the  want  of  systematic 
cleansing,  and   the  habit  of  burying  the  dead  within  the  walls.^ 

After  one  of  the  severest  of  these,  just  before  the  close 
B.C.  291.     of  the  Third  Samnite  War,  the  Sibylline  books  advised 

that  .^sculapius,  the  god  of  healing,  should  be  invited 
from  Epidaurus  in  Greece.  The  commissioners  who  were  sent 
for  this  purpose  were  received  courteously,  and  conducted  to  the 
famous  shrine ;  here  the  legend  says  that  the  serpent,  sacred  to 
^sculapius,  at  once  followed  them  through  the  city  and  on  board 
their  ship,  in  which  he  was  conveyed  to  Italy.  Arrived  at  Rome, 
the  serpent  glided  to  the  island  in  the  Tiber,  and  here  a  temple 
was  erected,  which  became  a  chief  seat  of  the  worship  of  the  god. 
This  is  the  fourth  important  Greek  cult  naturahzed  in  Rome ; 
Castor  and  Pollux,  Apollo,  and  the  Eleusinian  Triad  —  Ceres, 
Liber,  and  Libera  —  had  already  been  established  there. 

IIL    The  War  with  Pyrrhus. 

Tarentum.  —  The  authority  of  Rome  was  now  established  over 
the  entire  peninsula,  with  the  exception  of  the  northern  portions 
occupied  by  Gauls,  Ligurians,  and  Venetians  (which  were  not 
reckoned  properly  a  part  of  Italy),  and  the  cities  of  Magna  Grsecia 
in  the  south.  At  the  head  of  these  Greek  cities  was  Tarentum 
(the  modern  Otranto),  a  colony  of  Sparta,  a  commercial  city  of 
great  wealth  and  enterprise,  under  democratic  government.  This 
city,  probably  the  richest,  and,  next  to  Rome  and  Capua,  the 
largest  city  of  Italy,  now  made  a  last  effort  to  check  the  domina- 
tion of  Rome  over  the  peninsula ;  this  was  with  the  co-operation 
of  Pyrrhus,  king  of  Epirus,  the  greatest  general  of  his  time. 
/^Outbreak  of  the  War.  — There  was  a  treaty  of  peace  between 

1  See  Lanciani's  Ancient  Rome  in  the  Light  of  Recent  Discoveries,  p.  64. 
It  should  be  understood  that  the  Romans  in  early  times  buried  their  dead,  as 
many  families  did  even  after  cremation  had  become  usual;  and  that  the  poor, 
victims  of  pestilence,  etc.,  were  hurriedly  thrown  into  huge  pits. 


THE   INVASION   OF  ITAIY  BY  PYRRHUS.  97 

Rome  and  Tarentum,  similar  to  that  with  Carthage  (p.  79),  pro- 
hibiting the  Romans  from  sending  ships  beyond  the  Lacinian 
promontory,  on  the  southern  coast  of  Italy.  The  Tarentines  (like 
the  Carthaginians  in  their  treaty),  wished  to  reserve  this  lucrative 
field  of  traffic  to  themselves.  But  the  Romans,  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  their  new  power,  were  not  to  be  checked  in  their  natural 
expansion.  Communication  by  sea  with  the  Adriatic  was  essential 
to  the  security  of  their  new  possessions  upon  that  sea.  In 
deliberate  violation  of  the  treaty  a  Roman  fleet  appeared  B.C.  281. 
off  the  harbor  of  Tarentum.^  War  followed,  and  the 
Tarentines  invited  Pyrrhus  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  an 
Italian  coalition, 

Pyrrhus.  —  The  oriental  world  was  at  this  time  in  a  state  of 
turmoil  and  perpetual  warfare.  The  empire  of  Alexander  the 
Great  had,  since  his  death,  broken  into  a  number  of  fragments, 
and  Pyrrhus  was  perhaps  the  ablest  and  most  ambitious  of  the 
princes  who  at  this  time  ruled  over  a  part  of  these  domin- 
ions. This  invasion  of  Italy  was  in  the  very  year  of  the  B.C.  281. 
defeat  and  death  of  the  aged  Lysimachus,  king  of 
Thrace,  and  of  the  final  division  of  Alexander's  empire.  Pyrrhus 
brought  with  him  to  Italy  a  large  body  of  soldiers,  and  twenty 
elephants  —  a  new  and  strange  antagonist  to  an  Itahan  army,  and 
one  which,  to  a  certain  extent,  served  the  purpose  of  modern  field 
artillery.  For  a  hundred  years  after  this  time  the  elephants  played 
a  large,  and  often  a  decisive,  part  in  Roman  warfare. 

Battle  of  Heraclea. — The  first  battle  of  the  war  was 
fought  at  Heraclea.  In  this  battle  the  Roman  cavalry  B.C.  280. 
gained  the  first  advantage ;  but  the  c(^mpact  phalanx  of 
Pyrrhus  was  more  than  a  match  for  the  Roman  legion,  which 
was  not  skilfully  handled ;  and  the  elephants,  with  their  strange 
appearance  and  formidable  advance,  put  the  Romans  to  flight. 
But  the  losses  of  Pyrrhus  were  very  great,  and  he  was  so  impressed 
with  the  sturdiness  and  fighting  qualities  of  his  enemies,  that  he 

1  This  act  was,  in  its  intent,  not  unlike  the  violation  by  Russia  of  the  pro- 
vision of  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  restricting  its  naval  force  in  the  Black  Sea. 


98  THE    CONQUEST   OF  ITALY. 

sent  his  most  skilful  diplomatist,   Cineas,  as   an  ambassador  to 
Rome,  to  offer  terms  of  peace. 

Embassy  of  Cineas.  —  The  embassy  of  Cineas  made  a  deep 
impression  upon  the  imagination  and  memory  of  the  Romans. 
He  was  an  orator  of  persuasive  eloquence,  who  possessed  the  art 
of  winning  men  to  his  friendship  and  confidence.  His  gifts  were 
rejected,  but  his  arguments  were  powerful,  and  the  Senate  was 
upon  the  point  of  voting  to  accept  his  terms,  when  the  aged  and 
blind  Appius  Claudius  caused  himself  to  be  led  into  the  assem- 
blage, and  declared  that  Rome  should  never  treat  for  peace  so 
long  as  a  foreign  enemy  stood  upon  the  soil  of  Italy.  This  speech 
was  preserved  as  the  earliest  example  of  Roman  eloquence,  and 
was  still  read  in  the  time  of  Cicero.  It  had  its  effect,  and  Cineas 
returned  to  his  master  with  his  work  unaccomplished.  Deeply 
impressed  by  the  dignity  and  incorruptibility  of  the  Roman  states- 
men, he  pronounced  Rome  a  temple,  and  the  Senate  an  assembly 
of  kings. 

End  of  the  War.  —  Pyrrhus  was  now  joined  by  many  of  the 
Italian  nations,  and  the  following  year  gained  another 
B.C.  279.  victory  at  Asculum.  But  this  victory  was  followed  by  no 
decisive  advantages,  and  in  the  same  year  he  passed  over 
to  Sicily  to  defend  his  ally,  the  Greek  city  of  Syracuse,  against  the 
Carthaginians  who  were  in  alliance  with  Rome.  During  the  three 
years  of  his  absence  the  Romans  were  engaged  in  chastising  the 
Samnites  and  others  who  had  joined  with  Pyrrhus.  Upon  his  return 
to  Italy  the  final  and  decisive  battle  of  the  war  was  fought  in  275 
at  Beneventum,  where  Manius  Curius  gained  a  complete  victory 
and  brought  the  war  to  ,an  end.  Pyrrhus  returned  to  Greece, 
where  he  shordy  after  lost  his  life. 

The  Roman  Empire.  —  The  result  of  this  war  was  that  the  cities 
of  Magna  (;rjecia  were  brought  within  the  empire  of  Rome,  by 
entering  into  treaty  relations,  which  bound  them,  like  the  Italian 
states,  to  furnish  contingents  in  war  to  the  Roman  armies.  The 
power  of  Rome  now  extended  over  the  whole  of  Italy  proper, 
and  was  organized  as  follows  : 


THE  ITALIAN  STATES.  99 

I.  The  Ager  Romanus,  comprising  about  one-fourth  of  Italy, 
and  consisting  of: 

1.  The  city  of  Rome  and  its  territory,  divided  into  thirty-three 
tribes  (shortly  afterwards  increased  to  thirty-five),  which  formed 
the  basis  of  voting  and  of  financial  administration.  This  territory 
and  its  tribes  were  scattered  in  all  parts  of  Italy,  wherever  the 
citizens  had  received  assignments  of  land. 

2.  The  so-called  Roman  colonies  (p.  82),  consisting  of  Roman 
citizens,  scattered  along  the  sea-coast  for  its  defence.^  The  colonists 
possessed  full  rights  as  citizens,  and  were  members  of  the  tribes, 
but  were  called  on  for  no  military  duties  except  defence  of  the  coast. 

3.  The  viuiiicipia  of  best  standing  (p.  82).  These  had  been 
admitted  to  full  Roman  citizenship,  still  retaining  the  rights  of 
local  self-government.  These  municipia,  like  the  colonies  men- 
tioned above,  were  assigned  to  the  several  tribes. 

4.  The  mu7iicipia  of  Cseritan  rights  (p.  78).  The  inhabitants 
of  these  communities  had  full  civil  rights,  and  local  self-govern- 
ment, but  had  not  the  right  of  voting  in  Rome.  The  territories 
of  towns  of  this  class,  as  well  as  of  that  which  follows  (the  prae- 
fectures),  were  of  course  not  included  in  the  tribes. 

5.  The  prsefectures  {prcefecturae) ;  subject  communities,  which 
did  not  even  retain  local  self-government,  but  were  under  prcefects 
sent  from  Rome. 

II.  The  independent  communities,  which  were  not  in  law  sub- 
ject to  Rome,  but  which  by  treaty  or  by  the  terms  of  their  founda- 
tion were  required  to  support  Rome  with  their  military  forces. 
These  were  : 

I.   The    Latin  colonies,   at  this   time   twenty- two  in  number.^ 

1  There  were  at  this  time  only  seven  of  these,  but  the  number  was  gradually 
raised  to  thirty-five,  many  of  which  were  not  upon  the  sea-coast. 

-  Thirteen  others  were  afterwards  founded,  with  inferior  privileges.  After 
the  Second  Punic  War,  it  appears  to  have  been  difficult  to  persuade  citizens  to 
go  to  Latin  colonies,  thereby  forfeiting  their  citizenship;  they  cease  therefore 
from  the  year  180,  and  the  colonies  established  after  this  date,  whether  on  the 
coast  or  in  the  interior,  received  full  Roman  citizenship. 


100  THE    CONQUEST   OE  ITALY. 

These  were  founded  by  Rome  as  permanent  garrisons,  and  the 
colonists  possessed  certain  important  privileges,  such  as  the  right 
of  acquiring  Roman  citizenship  ;  they  were  however  independent 
states,  with  the  right  of  coining  money,  of  harboring  Roman  exiles 
(yV/i-  cxili),  etc. 

2.  The  allies  {socii  or  civitates  foedei-atae)  :  cities  which,  either 
individually  or  in  confederacies,^  had  entered  into  formal  treaty 
relations  with  Rome,  by  which  they  bound  themselves  to  contrib- 
ute regular  contingents  to  the  Roman  army.  The  communities  of 
this  class  composed  more  than  half  of  Italy.  They  were  entirely 
independent  in  their  government,  and  were  never  called  upon  for 
tribute. 

The   political   organization   thus   described   continued   without 

material  change  until  the  last  century  of  the  republic, 

B.C.  90.      when,  as  a  result  of  the  Social  War,  the  Roman  domain 

(Ager  Romanus)  and  Roman  citizenship  were  made  to 

comprehend  the  whole  of  Italy. 

Social  Condition.  —  The  period  which  we  have  now  reached  is 
that  in  which  the  Roman  people  were  at  their  greatest  height  of 
vigor  and  prosperity.  There  were  a  few  rich  families  —  plebeian 
as  well  as  patrician  —  which  owned  great  estates,  and  held  also 
large  amounts  of  public  land  (see  p.  47)  by  occupation;  but  the 
enormous  acquisitions  of  territory  by  conquest  had  made  sufficient 
provision  for  the  ]:)oor,  and  the  growth  of  great  estates  was  not 
yet  felt  as  an  evil.  A  hundred  years  later,  these  great  estates, 
cultivated  by  slave  labor,  had  engrossed  most  of  the  peninsula, 
and  their  owners  had  become  an  arrogant  and  grasping  oligarchy. 
But  at  present  the  Roman  people  were  still  in  the  main  a  body  of 
peasants,  living  in  the  simple  and  frugal  style  of  their  ancestors. 
It  was  a  maxim  of  Manius  Curius,  himself  a  Sabine  peasant,  that 
sQYtnjugera  (about  three  and  a  half  acres)  were  enough  for  the 
support  of  a  family ;  ^  and  he  refused  any  larger  share  for  himself 

1  For  example,  the  Samnite  Confederacy. 

2  It  must  be  understood  that  the  peasant  had,  besides  this  estate,  certain 
rights  of  pasturage,  etc.,  in  the  common  field. 


SOCIAL    CONDITION   OF   THE   ROMAN  PEOPLE.         101 

in  the  allotment  of  land.  The  cultivation  of  the  soil  with  their 
own  hands  was  still  the  occupation  of  Roman  citizens,  and  their 
well-directed  industry  had  made  into  a  garden  many  a  tract  of 
land  which  has  since  become  a  desert.^  An  .illustration  of  the 
simple  manners  of  the  time  is  found  in  the  expulsion  from  the 
Senate  by  Fabricius  of  a  patrician  of  consular  rank,  because  he 
owned  ten  pounds  of  silver  plate. 

Commencement  of  Economic  Decay.  —  The  period  upon  which 
we  now  enter,  that  of  foreign  wars,  waged  for  conquest  and  spolia- 
tion, worked  a  speedy  change  in  this  condition  of  society.  The 
change  indeed  had  already  begun.  The  system  of  great  landed 
estates  had  already  invaded  considerable  parts  of  Italy,  and  the 
enormous  treasures  suddenly  acquired  by  the  victory  over  the 
Samnites  and  the  conquest  of  the  Greek  cities  brought  about  a 
rapid  revolution  in  the  style  and  expense  of  living.^  Wealth 
acquired  by  industry  works  only  good ;  but  wealth  acquired  by 
plunder,  fraud,  and  the  spirit  of  gaming,  always  corrupts  :  of  this 
truth  Roman  history,  from  this  time  on,  is  a  conspicuous  witness. 
The  Romans  had  now  tasted  the  sweets  of  ill-gotten  riches,  and 
the  plunder  of  foreign  lands  became  more  and  more  their  govern- 
ing motive.  By  fair  means  and  by  foul,  great  estates  were  built 
up  at  the  expense  of  the  free  peasantry ;  slave  labor,  that  form  of 
labor  which  is  the  most  immediately  profitable,  crowded  out  free 
labor ;  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  itself  was  neglected,  and  what 
had  been  well-tilled  fields  became  desert  or  swamp  or  expanse  of 
pasture-land.  From  this  point  of  time  commences  the  decay 
of  the  Italian  peasantry,  and  along  with  it  of  Italian  agriculture.         .- 

Changes  in  Currency.  — The  economical  revolution  which  now  v3^ 
began  was  twofold ;    a  rapid  rise   of  prices,  resulting  from   the 
great  additions  made  to  the  circulating  medium,  and  a  spirit  of 

1  The  region  of  the  Pontine  marshes,  for  example,  now  a  malarious  wilder- 
ness, was  thickly  populated  and  well  cultivated,  being  rendered  healthy  and 
cultivable  by  an  elaborate  system  of  drainage,  of  which  remains  still  exist. 

2  In  the  triumphal  procession  in  the  year  B.C.  293,  1380  pounds  of  silver 
were  carried,  which  were  afterwards  deposited  in  the  treasury. 


102  THE    CONQUEST   OE  ITALY. 

eager  speculation,  which  tended  still  further  to  raise  prices  and  to 
change  fundamentally  the  habits  of  the  community.  The  critical 
point  of  time  in  this  movement  was  the  year  B.C.  269,  in  which 
silver  currency  was  first  introduced.  The  money  of  Rome  had 
until  now  been  exclusively  of  copper,  the  unit  being  the  as, 
nominally  a  pound  in  weight,  but  really  only  about  ten  ounces  : 
this  was  divided  into  twelve  unciae  (p.  27). 

The  Silver  Standard.  —  Silver  was  now  made  the  standard.  A 
mint  was  established  in  the  temple  of  Juno  Moneta  upon  the  Arx,^ 
and  the  spoils  of  Tarentum  were  coined  into  pieces  of  nearly  the 
value  of  the  Greek  drachma  (about  eighteen  cents  ^),  which  were 
to  stand  towards  the  copper  coins  as  having  the  value  of  ten  asses ; 
hence  they  were  called  denafiif  and  an  intermediate  piece  of  one- 
fourth  (two  and  a  \\2\.i  asses)  was  named  sestertius  (^seniis-tertius). 
The  ratio  thus  established  between  silver  and  copper  was  soon 
changed.  The  abundance  of  silver  currency  rapidly  lowered  its 
value,  while  at  the  same  time  there  was  a  general  rise  in  prices, 
caused  by  the  growth  of  commerce  and  of  luxury.  By 
B.C.  217.  successive  steps  the  as  was  reduced  in  weight,  until  at 
last,  it  had  fallen  to  one  ounce,  at  which  standard  it 
remained ;  four  asses  of  this  weight  were  equal  to  a  sesterce,  and 
sixteen  to  a  dena7'ius. 

Germs  of  Art.  —  It  is  commonly  said  that  the  Roman  people 
were  deficient  in  artistic  capacity.  It  is  true  that  they  never  de- 
veloped an  original  school  of  art,  and  they  certainly  did  not 
possess  the  wonderful  power  of  creative  art  which  distinguished 
the  Greeks.  Their  minds  were  exclusively  set  upon  practical 
problems  of  life,  government,  and  law,  so  that  their  aesthetic 
nature  was  held  in  abeyance,  only  to  find  ripe  expression  in 
modern  times.  But  at  this  period  of  the  culmination  of  na- 
tional character  and  powers,  we  find  promising  germs  of  art  and 

1  The  spot  until  recently  occupied  by  the  church  of  Santa  Maria  in  Araceli. 
From  the  epithet  JMoneta  the  word  money  is  derived. 

2  Afterwards  reduced  to  a  little  over  sixteen  cents. 

3  From  deni,  "  ten  apiece." 


ROMAN  ART. 


103 


culture.  The  ballads,  sung  at  family  gatherings  and  banquets,  ex- 
tolling the  deeds  of  some  Fabius  or  Valerius  or  Horatius,  have 
been  a  source  of  tradition  which  long  passed  as  history.  Even 
plastic  art  was  not  wanting.  The  sarcophagus  of  Scipio  Barbatus 
{the  Bearded^,  one  of  the  commanders  in  the  Second  Samnite 
war,  has  been  preserved  to  this  day,  and  is  a  model  of  chaste 
and  elegant  workmanship. 


SARCOPHAGUS    OF    SCIPIO    BARBATUS. 

Loss  of  Creative  Power  in  Art.  —  The  tremendous  wars  upon 
which  Rome  now  entered,  the  feverish  grasping  after  power  and 
wealth,  the  growing  disregard  of  everything  but  power  and  wealth, 
and  the  rapid  corruption  of  character  which  inevitably  followed, 
destroyed  all  the  healthier  growth  of  a  finer  civilization ;  and  the 
Romans,  given  up  to  the  pursuit  of  power  and  pleasure,  were  con- 
tent to  look  to  the  despised  Greeks  for  forms  of  art  which  should 
minister  to  their  craving  for  ostentation  and  sensuous  luxury. 


PERIOD   OF   FOREIGN   CONQUEST. 

chaptp:r  VIII. 

THE   FIRST   PUNIC   WAR. 

^  Carthage.  —  Carthage  was  a  rich  and  populous  city  upon  the 
northern  coast  of  Africa ;  its  ruins  are  only  about  ten  miles  from 
the  modern  city  of  Tunis.  It  was  a  colony,  founded  by  the  Phoeni- 
cian city  of  Tyre,  at  the  time  when  the  Phoenicians  were  the  prin- 
cipal sea-faring  nation  of  the  Mediterranean.  As  Phoenicia  sank 
in  importance,  this  colony,  situated  upon  a  magnificent  harbor, 
took  its  place  as  an  emporium  of  commerce.  The  other  Phoenician 
colonies,  as  Utica,  Gades  (  Cadiz)  and  Tartessus  (the  biblical  Tar- 
shish),  submitted  to  its  lead,  and  its  power  was  extended  over  the 
northern  coast  of  Africa  and  the  island  of  Sardinia,  while  Corsica 
and  a  part  of  Spain  were  tributary  to  it ;  it  had  also,  by  a  long  and 
hard  contest,  established  its  rule  over  all  the  western  part  of  Sicily. 
This  beautiful  island  was  now  divided  between  Carthage  and  Syra- 
cuse, the  two  greatest  cities  of  the  West ;  and  the  contest  between 
them  was  not  yet  at  an  end. 

^'Rome  and  Carthage.  —  Carthage  was  a  republic,  like  Rome, 
and  the  power  and  resources  of  the  two  republics  were  not  very 
different.  But  they  were  unlike  in  one  important  respect :  Car- 
thage controlled  the  resources  of  subject  nations  of  a  foreign  and 
inferior  race,  while  Rome  was  at  the  head  of  a  great  nationality,  of 
sturdy  qualities  and  homogeneous  in  blood.  Carthage  was  never 
anything  more  than  Carthage,  and  her  armies  were  made  up  of 
barbarian  subjects,  —  Numidians,  Libyans,  and  Iberians.  Rome 
was  now  identified  with  Italy,  and  her  armies  were  composed  of 
Roman  and  SabelHan  peasants  —  every  one  of  them  citizens  of 
Rome,  or  of  some  town  in  alliance  with  Rome. 


ROME   AND    CARTHAGE.  105 

Contrast  in  Character.  —  Moreover  the  Carthaginians,  even  at 
their  best,  stood  on  a  lower  plane  of  character  than  the  Romans. 
The  Romans  were  severe  and  inflexible,  but  they  had  not  yet 
developed  that  criieUy  of  temper  to  which  they  were  afterwards 
educated  by  their  wars  of  conquest  and  gladiatorial  shows.  The 
Carthaginians  were  cruel  by  nature.  Their  gods  were  not  the 
genial  deities  of  Greece,  nor  the  serious  and  ethical  gods  of  Rome  : 
they  had  brought  with  them  from  Phoenicia  the  cruel  rites  of 
Moloch  and  the  profligate  rites  of  Astarte.  The  Romans,  after 
they  became  corrupted,  punished  their  slaves  with  the  lingering 
tortures  of  crucifixion;  but  this  punishment  the  Carthaginians 
constantly  inflicted  upon  captive  enemies  and  unsuccessful 
generals. 

Relations  of  Rome  and  Carthage. — The  Romans  and  Car-- 
thaginians  were  old  friends;  even  in  the  wars  of  Pyrrhus  they 
had  stood  together  against  the  Greek  cities  and  their  allies.  Their 
separate  interests  had  not  yet  brought  them  into  collision.  But  it 
was  with  the  Carthaginians  as  it  had  been  with  the  Samnites.  As 
soon  as  the  extension  of  the  Roman  empire  had  brought  the  two 
friendly  states  into  close  neighborhood,  their  interests  became 
antagonistic,  and  hostihties  soon  followed.  The  First  Punic ^  War 
began  barely  ten  years  after  the  end  of  the  war  with  Pyrrhus. 

Origin  of  the  War.  —  The  First  Punic  War  was  in  its  origin 
almost  an  accident.  A  contest  of  centuries  had  been  going  on 
between  Carthage  and  Syracuse  for  the  possession  of  Sicily.  Into 
this  contest  Rome  was  drawn  by  a  single  act  of  bad  faith ;  and, 
once  involved  in  the  struggle,  it  did  not  lay  down  its  arms  until 
the  Carthaginians  were  expelled  from  Sicily,  and  all  their  posses- 
sions in  that  island  transferred  to  Rome.  This  war  is  therefore 
properly  called  "The  War  for  Sicily,"  although  the  possession  of 
Sicily  was  not  its  original  motive. 

1  Punic  is  another  form  of  Phoenician.  The  Carthaginians  were  Phoeni- 
cians, just  as  the  inhabitants  of  the  French  and  English  colonies  in  America 
were  Frenchmen  and  Englishmen ;  and  the  wars  with  Carthage,  three  in  num- 
ber, were  known  as  the  Punic  Wars. 


106  THE  FIRST  PUNIC    WAR. 

The  Mamertines.  —  Hiero,  king  of  Syracuse,  had  taken  into 
his  pay  a  body  of  Campanian  mercenaries.  These  men  had 
mutinied,  and  under  the  name  of  Mamertines,  "Sons  of  Mars,"  ^ 
had  seized  the  city  of  Messana  and  held  it,  in  defiance  of  both 
Syracusans  and  Carthaginians.  Finding  themselves  hard  pressed, 
they  sent  an  embassy  to  Rome,  offering  to  place  themselves  and 
their  city  under  its  authority  and  protection.  Now  a  few  years 
before  a  body  of  Campanian  troops  in  the  Roman  service  had,  in 
like  unlawful  manner,  seized  and  held  the  Italian  city  of  Rhegium  ; 
and  had  been  punished  with  prompt  and  terrible  severity  as  soon 
as  the  city  was  brought  under  the  Roman  power.  The 
B.C.  271.  mutineers,  three  hundred  at  a  time,  were  scourged  and 
beheaded  upon  the  Roman  Forum,  and  the  city  was 
restored  to  its  lawful  owners.  But  now  a  spirit  of  lawless  ambition 
prevailed,  and,  under  the  influence  of  the  consul  Appius  Claudius 
(son  of  the  blind  statesman),  the  Romans  voted  to  accept  the 
offer  of  the  Mamertines.     This  was  in  the  year  264. 

Creation  of  a  Navy  by  the  Romans.  —  The  Romans  com- 
menced the  war  with  prompt  and  successful  operations.  Hiero 
was  compelled  to  enter  into  a  treaty  of  alliance,  which  he  kept 
loyally  during  the  remainder  of  his  long  reign.  The  Romans 
then  captured  the  important  stronghold  of  Agrigentum,  and  soon 
were  masters  of  the  entire  island,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
maritime  ports.  More  than  this  they  could  not  accompUsh  as 
long  as  the  Carthaginians  were  masters  of  the  sea.  For  the  mari- 
time activity  of  the  Romans  had  always  been  in  the  way  of  com- 
merce. They  had  no  navy,  and  had  never  conducted  a  war  by 
sea.  They  were  even  ignorant  of  the  construction  of  war  ships. 
But  their  native  energy  was  aided  by  fortune.  A  Carthaginian 
quinquereme  ^  had  been  stranded  upon  their  shore.  Taking  this 
as  a  model,  they  built  with  great  rapidity  a  number  of  galleys, 
trained  the  oarsmen  in  the  use  of  the  oars  by  practising  the  strokes 
on  land,  while  the  ships  were  still  building,  and  astonished  their 

1  Mafners  is  another  form  for  Mars. 

2  A  war-galley  with  five  banks  of  oars. 


MARCUS  ATILIUS  REGULUS. 


107 


enemies  with  the  appearance  of  a  numerous  and  well-equipped 
fleet. 

Battle  of  Mylae.  —  The  Romans  still  lacked  experience  and 
skill  in  naval  warfare.  They  were  beaten  in  their  first  engage- 
ment. But  their  new  commander,  Gains  Duilius,  seeing  that  his 
countrymen  were  inferior  in  naval  tactics,  but  invincible  on  land, 
determined  to  foil  the  tactics  of  his  enemy  by  giving  to  the  en- 
gagement on  ship-board  the  character  of  an  engagement  on  land. 
Naval  tactics  in  antiquity  consisted 
chiefly  in  manoeuvring ;  the  aim  was  to 
bring  the  sharp  beak  upon  the  prow  in 
contact  with  the  side  of  the  enemy's 
vessel,  and  thus  disable  or  sink  it.  This 
action  he  aimed  to  prevent,  by  provid- 
ing his  ships  with  grapples  which,  when 
fastened  upon  the  enemy's  vessel,  should 
at  once  prevent  independent  move- 
ment, and  serve  as  boarding-bridges. 
The  plan  succeeded  perfectly.  The 
Carthaginian  ships  were  seized  by  the 
grapples  and  held  fast,  while  the  Roman 
soldiers  poured  upon  the  decks 
and  gained  a  decisive  victory.  B.C.  260. 
For  this  achievement  Duilius 
was  rewarded  by  the  erection  of  a 
column  in  his  honor  upon  the  Forum, 
adorned  with  the  beaks  of  the  captured 
vessels  {colintma  rostrafa),  and  by  the 
permission  to  be  accompanied  by  the  music  of  flute-players  when 
returning  home  at  night  from  banquets. 

Marcus  Atilius  Regulus.  —  By  these   successes  on  land   and 
sea  the  Romans  seemed  to  be  secure  in  the  possession  of 
Sicily,  and  the  consul  Regulus,  a  few  years  later,  thought    B.C.  256. 

1  The  inscription  of  this  column  is  in  part  preserved,  although  probably 
belonging  to  a  later  copy. 


THE  COLUMN   OF   DUILIUS. 
(A   Restoration.) 


108  THE   FIRST  PUNIC    WAR. 

that  the  time  had  come  to  "  carry  the  war  into  Africa,"  and 
there  strike  a  final  and  decisive  blow.  For  a  time  he  carried 
everything  before  him,  and  the  Carthaginians  were  forced  to  sue 
for  peace.  The  arrogance  of  Regulus,  in  first  proposing  unreason- 
ably hard  terms,  and  then,  when  these  were  rejected,  in  unduly 
despising  his  antagonists,  and  neglecting  to  take  the  most  necessary 
precautions,  worked  his  own  ruin,  and  came  near  being  fatal  to  his 
country's  cause.  His  defeat  and  capture  the  next  year  formed  a 
turning  point  in  the  history  of  the  war.^ 

War  in  Sicily.  —  The  defeat  of  this  expedition  was  followed  by 
the  evacuation  of  Africa  and  the  renewal  of  the  war  in  Sicily.    The 
Romans  now  met  with  disaster  after  disaster.     Their  principal 
undertaking  in  this  period  of  the  war  was  the  siege  of  Lilybaeum, 
in  the  westernmost  point  of  the  island.     Here  too,  after  some  suc- 
cesses, they  miscarried.     The  consul  Publius  Claudius, 
B.C.  249.     who  was  engaged  in  the  siege,  made  up  his  mind  to 
attack  by  surprise  the  Carthaginian  fleet  at  Drepana : 
and   when   the    sacred    chickens,   which   were   regularly   carried 
on    campaigns    for    the    purpose    of    taking    auspices,    refused 
to  eat,    and   thus  warned  against  the  undertaking,  he  remarked, 
"  If  they  will  not  eat,  they  shall  drink,"  and  tossed  them  in  the 
sea.     His  enterprise  failed  ;  he  was  out-generalled  by  the  Cartha- 
ginian admiral,  and  lost  his  fleet.     Another  fleet  was  wrecked  the 
same  year.     Four  large  fleets  had  been  lost  in  the  course  of  the 
war,  and  no  permanent  advantage  had  yet  been  gained.     A  new 
Carthaginian  commander,    Hamilcar   Barca,  a   man  of 
B.C.  247.     genius,  entrenched  himself  on  Mt.  Ercte  ^  near  Panormos, 
and  afterwards  upon  Mt.  Eryx.     From  these  strongholds 
he  harassed  the   Romans,   and   made  their  possession   of  Sicily 

insecure. 
B.C.  241.        The  Last  Year  of  the  War.  — Twenty-three  years  had 
passed  in  war,  and  the  end  seemed  no  nearer  than  ever. 

1  The  story,  related  by  some  ancient  writers,  of  his  embassy  to  Rome  and 
return  to  a  death  of  torture,  is  not  credited  by  modern  historians. 

'■2  Now  known  as  Monte  Pellegrino,  the  noble  height  close  to  Palermo. 


END    OF   THE    WAR.  109 

Since  the  disasters  at  Lilybaeum,  the  Romans  had  ceased  to  con- 
tend by  sea,  and  the  successes  of  Hamilcar  threatened  to  deprive 
them  of  the  land  also.  Even  the  Senate,  for  almost  the  only  time 
in  its  history,  lost  heart ;  but  the  heroic  nation  did  not  know  what 
it  was  to  despair.  By  a  supreme  effort,  through  the  voluntary 
contributions  of  citizens,  to  be  repaid  in  the  event  of  victory,  a 
new  fleet  of  two  hundred  vessels  was  built,  manned  by  sixty  thou- 
sand sailors,  and  placed  under  the  command  of  the  consul  Gaius 
Lutatius  Catulus,  a  man  prompt  in  decision  and  of  indomitable 
courage. 

Battle  of  the  iEgates.  —  The  appearance  of  this  new  fleet  took 
the  Carthaginians  by  surprise  ;  for  of  late  years  naval  warfare  had 
been  suspended,  and  they  as  well  as  the  Romans  had  neglected 
this  arm  of  the  service.  Catulus  left  them  no  time  to  make  up  for 
their  neglect,  h.  Carthaginian  fleet  was  on  its  way  to  Sicily  heavily 
laden  with  supplies.  It  was  the  intention  of  its  commander  to 
land  the  cargo,  take  troops  on  board,  and  thus  be  prepared  to  fight. 
These  designs  were  assisted  by  the  weather;  the  sea  was  very 
rough,  and  many  commanders  would  have  allowed  the  vessels  to 
pass,  waiting  for  calmer  weather.  But  Catulus  left  nothing  to 
chance.  In  spite  of  the  storm  he  boldly  sailed  out  of  the  harbor, 
engaged  the  enemy,  and  gained  a  complete  and  overwhelming 
victory.  The  Carthaginian  navy  was  destroyed,  and  Hamilcar 
with  his  army  was  left  without  support  or  supplies.  This 
battle,  ending  the  First  Punic  War,  was  fought  ofl"  the  B.C.  241. 
Agates  Islands,  west  of  Sicily.  Upon  news  of  this  defeat, 
Hamilcar  immediately  agreed  to  a  peace,  the  conditions  of  which 
were  the  cession  of  Sicily  and  the  islands  about  it,  and  the  payment 
of  3200  talents  (about  ^3,500,000)  in  ten  yearly  instalments. 

Mutiny  of  the  Carthaginian  Mercenaries.  —  Immediately 
after  peace  was  made,  Carthage  was  involved  in  a  formidable  war 
by  the  mutiny  of  her  mercenary  troops.  They  were  at  last  reduced 
by  Hamilcar,  after  a  war  of  over  three  years,  marked  by  the  most 
savage  cruelties  on  both  sides.  While  the  Carthaginians  were 
engaged  in  this  death  struggle,  the  Romans  basely  took  advantage 


110  THE   FIRST  PUNIC    WAR. 

of  their  distress  to  seize  upon  the  islands  of  wSardinia  and  Corsica ; 
and  when  the  Carthaginians  protested,  they  required  them  to  pay 
an  additional  tribute  of  1200  talents. 

Foreign  Acquisitions.  —  The  three  great  islands  which  the 
Romans  had  now  acc^uired  are  so  near  to  Italy,  and  stand  in  such 
relation  to  it,  that  they  may  be  almost  considered  as  belonging  to 
it;  as  we  have  before  shown  (p.  3),  they  serve,  with  the  Italian 
mainland,  to  make  the  Tyrrhenian  Sea  an  enclosed  body  of  water. 
Their  possession  may  therefore  be  regarded  as  a  natural  and 
almost  necessary  result  of  the  possession  of  Italy.  Nevertheless 
they  were  not  politically  united  with  Italy.  A  new  system  of 
government  was  applied  to  them,  which  was  afterwards  extended 
to  other  foreign  conquests,  and  is  known  as  the  Provincial  System. 
^The  Provincial  System. — The  difference  between  the  pro- 
vincial system  and  the  system  which  prevailed  in  Italy  was  this. 
All  lands  in  Italy  were  either  a  part  of  the  Roman  domain,  or 
were  independent  communities  in  alhance  with  Rome.  If  there 
were  certain  communities  which  could  be  regarded  as  subject, 
such  as  the  prsefectures  (p.  99),  they  were  nevertheless  Roman 
communities,  and  their  inhabitants  Roman  citizens,  although  under 
certain  disqualifications.  But  outside  of  Italy  the  conquered  states 
were  held  strictly  as  subjects.  Their  lands  were  not  regarded  as 
their  own,  but  as  belonging  to  Rome,  and  it  was  only  by  sufferance 
that  their  former  proprietors  retained  them  ;  on  this  ground  a 
heavy  tribute  was  imposed  upon  them. 

Government  of  the  Provinces.  —  A  Roman  governor  was 
appointed  to  administer  each  province,  and  for  this  purpose  two 
new  prsetors  were  now  elected.^  These  governors  had  absolute 
and  practically  irresponsible  powers,  and,  as  the  gradual  deteriora- 
tion of  the  Roman  character  went  on,  these  pr?etors  or  proconsuls  - 

1  Two  others  were  added  after  the  Second  Punic  War.  A  second  had  been 
already  elected,  for  the  administration  of  justice  with  foreigners. 

2  When  there  were  not  enough  praetors  to  administer  all  the  provinces, 
some  of  these  were  assigned  to  praetors  or  consuls  with  extended  powers  (i/u- 
perium  prorogatuni) ;   such  an  officer  was  known  as  pro-prator  or  pro-consul. 


CONQUEST   OF  CISALPINE    GAUL.  Ill 

became  notorious  for  avarice  and  cruelty.  Besides  the  subject 
territories,  the  area  of  a  province  might  embrace  free  cities  and 
kingdoms  which  were  in  alUance  with  Rome  and  were  not  legally 
subject  to  the  governor/  although  of  course  this  independence  was 
in  reality  only  nominal.  Syracuse  also  was  independent 
until  after  the  death  of  King  Hiero.  It  will  be  well  B.C.  215. 
understood  that  the  provincial  system  was  a  fruitful 
source  of  corruption  and  misgovernment ;  for  the  provinces  soon 
became  an  object  of  plunder  and  profit  to  the  governor,  the 
Roman  people,  and  individual  citizens. 

War  with  the  Gauls.  —  The  First  Punic  War  lasted  twenty- 
three  years  (264-241),  just  the  duration  of  the  Second  Samnite 
War  (327-304)  ;  and  another  period  of  twenty-three  years  (241- 
218)  separated  it  from  the  Second  Punic  War.     The  principal  part 
of  this  interval  was  spent  by  the  Romans  in  the  conquest  of  the 
country  between  the  Apennines  and  the  Alps,  at  this  time 
occupied  by  Gauls.    The  war  with  the  Gauls  began  shortly    B.C.  238. 
after  the  peace  with  Carthage,  but  did  not  assume  large 
proportions  until  the  passage  of  a  law  proposed  by  the    B.C.  232. 
tribune  Gains  Flaminius,  making  assignments  to  citizens 
(p.  49)  of  lands  recently  taken  from  the  Senonian  Gauls.     It  was 
easy  to  see  that  this  was  only  the  first   step   to  the  occupation 
of  the  whole  Gallic  country  \  and  all  the  Gallic  tribes,  except  the 
Cenomani  in  the  northeast,  took  up  arms  against  Rome. 

Conquest  of   Gaul.  —  The  war   continued   ten   years 
longer,  culminating  in  a  formidable  invasion  of  Etruria    B.C.  225. 
by  a  Gallic  army  of  70,000  men.     To  avert  the  peril 
two  Gauls,  male  and  female,  were  buried  alive  on  the  Forum,  in 
accordance  with  the  popular  superstition ;  the  well-trained  legions 
were  a  more    effective    resource,   and    the    Gauls  were 
defeated  with   great  slaughter.     Three  years  later  the    B.C.  222. 
war  was  ended  by  a  battle  in  which  the  consul  Marcus 
Claudius  Marcellus  gained  the  spolia  opima  —  the  third  recorded 
occasion  —  by  slaying  the  Gallic  king  with  his  own  hand. 
1  For  example,  Messana  in  Sicily. 


112  TJJK  FJRSr  PUNIC    WAR. 

The  North  of  Italy.  —  Rome  now  ruled  the  entire  peninsula 
of  Italy,  with  the  exception  of  some  mountain  tribes,  chiefly 
Ligurians.  The  Latin  colonies  of  Placentia  (^Piacejiza)  and 
Cremona  were  founded  in  the  conquered  territory,  and  a  military 
road,  the  Flaminian  Way,  carried  across  the  Apennines  as  far 
as  Ariminum  {Rimini),  which  now  became  the  headquarters  of 
Roman  administration  north  of  the  Apennines.  But  the  newly 
conquered  peoples  were  by  no  means  willing  or  submissive  sub- 
jects. Wholly  foreign  to  the  Romans  in  race,  character,  and 
institutions,  not  incorporated  in  the  political  system  of  their  con- 
querors, but  held  down  with  the  strong  hand,  the  Gauls  only 
waited  for  an  opportunity  to  throw  off  the  hated  yoke.  ^\'ith 
good  judgment  Hannibal  made  them  the  basis  of  his  operations 
against  Rome  in  the  great  war  which  followed. 

The  lUyrians.  —  While  the  war  was  going  on  with  the 
B.C.  229.     Gauls,  the  Romans  were  drawn  into  hostilities  also  with 

the  Illyrian  pirates,  on  the  eastern  coast  of  the  Adriatic 
Sea,  and  entered  into  alliance  with  Corcyra  and  other  Greek 
cities  of  that  region,  —  the  beginning  of  their  intercourse  with  the 
nations  of  the  East. 

Gains  Flaminius.  —  The  law  by  which  Gaius  Flaminius  dis- 
tributed the  Gallic  lands  among  the  citizens  (p.  iii)  was  a  signifi- 
cant event  in  Roman  history,  inasmuch  as  it  was  the  first  occasion 
on  which  the  popular  assembly  was  called  upon  to  decide  matters 
which  were  regularly  managed  by  the  Senate.  Flaminius  has  been 
called  the  first  Roman  demagogue ;  and  this  act  was  the  first  step 
towards  the  legislative  anarchy  of  the  last  century  of  the  republic. 
But  he  was  not  a  demagogue  of  the  type  of  Cleon  or  Clodius. 

He  was  an  intelligent  reformer  and  an  able  administra- 
B.C.  227.     tor ;  and  as  first  governor  of  Sicily  he  won  a  reputation 

for  integrity  and  humanity  which  long  preserved  his  name 
in  the  grateful  remembrance  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  province. 
His  violation  of  constitutional  procedure  in  carrying  his  agrarian 
law  avenged  itself  in  the  bitter  hostility  of  the  nobles  which  pur- 
sued him  through  life,  and  in  the  vindictiveness  with  which  the 


ROMAN  LITERATURE.  113 

Gauls  in  Hannibal's  army  hunted  him  to  death  at  Lake 
Trasimene.  B.C.  217. 

Reform  of  the  Comitia.  —  Flaminius  was  the  typical 
reformer  of  this  age,  and  we  can  probably  ascribe  to  his  B.C.  220. 
censorship  the  most  important  constitutional  change  of 
this  epoch,  which  was  made  at  some  time  between  the  First  and 
Second  Punic  Wars.  By  this  measure  the  centuriate  assembly 
(p.  -^-^  was  reorganized  and  brought  into  connection  with  the 
thirty-five  local  tribes,  which  now  became  the  basis  of  this  assem- 
bly as  well  as  of  the  tribal  assembUes  proper.^  As  the  preponder- 
ance of  the  first  or  most  wealthy  class  appears  to  have  been  taken 
away  by  this  reform,  it  may  without  hesitation  be  regarded  as  one 
of  the  steps  in  democratic  progress. 

Beginnings  of  Roman  Literature.  —  At  this  period  we  mark  - 
the  first  beginnings  of  Roman  literature  —  neither  vigorous  in 
themselves,  nor  distinctly  national.  It  was  rather  a  reflection  of 
Greek  literature  than  an  original  creation.  The  writer,  indeed, 
who  ranks  as  the  earliest  of  Roman  authors,  Livius  Andronicus, 
was  a  Greek  by  birth.  He  was  a  wretched  poetaster,  but  his 
translations  of  Homer  long  served  as  text-books  in  the  schools 
of  Rome.  The  most  distinguished  writer  of  the  time,  Quintus 
Ennius,  was  also  the  native  of  a  Greek  city ;  his  works  —  epics, 
dramas,  and  satires  —  had  great  merit,  and  continued  to  rank  as 
the  chief  creations  of  Roman  hterature,  until  eclipsed  by  the 
writings  of  Virgil  and  Horace.  The  earliest  Roman  historian, 
Quintus  Fabius  Pictor,  —  a  member  of  the  distinguished  Fabian 
gens,  and  the  author  of  a  work  of  great  merit,  —  wrote,  neverthe- 

1  We  possess  no  definite  statement  as  to  this  reform,  but  it  is  pretty  well 
agreed  that  it  consisted  in  making  the  number  of  centuries  of  each  class  equal : 
each  of  the  thirty-five  tribes  having  now  two  centuries  (one  of  seniores  and 
one  oi  junior es)  from  each  of  the  five  classes.  This  made  350  centuries,  to 
which  must  be  added  the  eighteen  centuries  of  cavalry,  and  five  of  workmen 
and  musicians,  373  in  all.  It  is  the  opinion  of  Mommsen,  however,  that  the 
280  centuries  of  the  four  lower  classes  were  grouped  into  100  voting  divisions, 
so  that  the  entire  number  of  votes  was  193,  as  before. 


114  THE  FIRST  PUNIC    WAR. 

less,  in  the  Greek  language ;  while  the  comedies  of  Plautus  and 
Caeciliiis  were  nothing  but  free  translations  from  the  Greek 
comedians.  The  only  writer  of  the  time  who  can  be  called  a 
genuine  Roman  was  the  poet  Gnseus  Nsevius.  He  was  a  Roman 
citizen,  and  a  writer  of  some  original  powder ;  and  his  independent 
spirit  made  him  enemies  among  the  nobility.^  His  principal 
work  was  a  history  in  verse  of  the  First  Punic  War,  in  which  he 
had  himself  taken  part. 

Germs  of  the  Drama.  —  After  these  feeble  beginnings  more 
than  a  century  passed  before  Rome  can  be  said  to  have  had  any 
school  of  literature.  There  were  germs,  in  the  rude  songs  and 
sports  of  peasants,  out  of  which  a  native  drama  might  have  been 
developed  :  beginnings  which  may  be  compared  with  the  corre- 
sponding creation  of  Thespis  in  Athens,  out  of  w^hich  the  Attic 
drama  sprung.  But  the  fashionable  taste  craved  nothing  but 
imitations  of  the  Greek,  and  in  this  department  the  next  genera- 
tion witnessed  the  creation  of  a  literature  of  much  merit ;  -  while 
the  native  mimes  and  fables,  abandoned  to  the  lower  classes, 
preserved  their  original  coarseness  and  grossness. 

1  His  verse  Fato  Metelli  fiiint  consides  (The  IVIetelli  receive  consulships  by 
fate)  not  only  called  out  from  the  consul  of  B.C.  206  the  rejoinder  Dabtint 
malum  Metelli  N'aevio poetae  (The  Metelli  will  make  the  poet  Nxvius  smart), 
but  also  procured  him  imprisonment  and  exile. 

^  See  Chap.  X. 


THE  MEDITERRANEAN  LANDS 
at  the  beginning  of  the 

SECOND  PUNIC  WAR. 


Roman  Possessions  and  Allies         I |        Free  Greek  States        I I 

Carthaginian  do  \ |        Syrian  Possessions      I I 

Macedonian  do  I 1        Egyptian        do 


□ 


30 


CIversoH<^ 


•arta 


C  ^  BysaAuw'^. 


x\^ 


'^^. 


1 


ioAl  ^^   Bi>ft«sws , 


cnio 


Tars«s 


le  t  e        oVJ 


*(Sctl<H: 


paf^-H'^ 


30 


THE    CARTHAGINIANS  IN  SPAIN.  115 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE   SECOND   PUNIC   WAR. 
I.     To  THE  Revolt  of  Capua,  b.c.  216. 

The  War  with  Hannibal.^  — The  war  which  now  followed  was 
the  greatest  and  most  perilous  in  the  annals  of  Rome ;  a  war  in 
which  one  of  the  great  generals  of  history,  inspired  with  a  bitter 
animosity  against  Rome,  brought  her  very  near  to  destruction. 
What  saved  her  in  this  crisis  was  the  vigor  and  patriotism  of  her 
people,  the  homogeneous  character  of  the  people  of  Italy,  and 
the  generous  policy  which  the  conquering  city  had  pursued  towards 
her  Italian  alUes. 

Cause  of  the  War.  —  Both  nations  were  conscious  that  the 
contest  was  to  come,  and  prepared  for  it  to  the  best  of  their 
abihty.  The  loss  of  Sicily  was  the  fortune  of  war ;  but  the  seizure 
of  Sardinia  and  the  extortion  of  an  additional  tribute  were  acts  of 
cupidity  and  bad  faith  which  rankled  in  the  heart  of  every  Cartha- 
ginian. When  Hamilcar  Barca,  after  suppressing  the  war  of  the 
mercenaries,  set  out  for  Spain,  to  estabhsh  a  new  empire  there  in 
place  of  that  which  had  been  lost,  he  took  with  him  his  nine-year- 
old  son,  Hannibal,  and  trained  him  to  be  his  successor  in  com- 
mand, first  making  him  take  an  oath  of  eternal  hostihty  to  Rome. 
The  family  of  Barca  incorporated  in  themselves  the  sentiment  of 
the  patriotic  party  in  Carthage. 

The  Barcas  in  Spain.  —  Taking  as  his  starting-point  the  old 
Phoenician  colonies,  Gades  and  Tartessus,  in  the  south  of  Spain, 
Hamilcar   proceeded  to   conquer   the  peninsula.      At  his  death 

1  The  best  history  of  this  war  is  Arnold's  The  Second  Punic  War  (Mac- 
millan).  For  an  entertaining  work  of  fiction  read  The  Carthaginian  Boy, 
by  Henty. 


116  THE   SECOND  PUNIC    WAR. 

B.C.  228.     he  was  succeeded   by  his   son-in-law,    Hasdrubal,   who 
carried   on  his  work  with  equal   zeal   and  ability,   and 
founded  the  city  of  New  Carthage  {^Cartage?ia) ,  as  capital  of  the 
new  empire.     The  Romans,  engrossed  in  their  wars  with  the  Gauls 
and  Illyrians  (p.  m),  watched  jealously  the  growth  of  the  Cartha- 
ginian power,   but  were   not  in  a  condition  to  resist  it. 
B.C.  225.    They  nevertheless  entered  into  a  treaty  with  Hasdrubal, 
by  which  he  bound  himself  not  to  pass  the  Ebro  with  an 
B.C.  220.     armed  force.     When  Hasdrubal,  shortly  after,  was  assas- 
sinated, Hannibal,  now  about  twenty-six  years  old,  suc- 
ceeded to  his  command,  and  at  once  began  preparations  for  war. 
The  Romans,  still  involved  in  Illyrian  affairs,  and  believing  that  the 
peace  party  in  Carthage  would  have  the  upper  hand,  were  taken 
unprepared. 

Beginning  of  the  "War.  —  The  first  act  of  Hannibal,  after 
completing  the  subjugation  of  the  country  as  far  as  the  Ebro, 
was  to  attack  the  Greek  city  of  Saguntum,  an  ally  of 
B.C.  219.  Rome.  This  he  captured  and  destroyed  after  a  siege  of 
eight  months.  War  was  at  once  declared,  and  Hannibal 
immediately  set  out  with  his  army,  passed  the  Ebro  and  the 
Pyrenees,  traversed  Southern  Gaul,  and  had  already  crossed  the 
Rhone  when  the  consul,  Publius  Scipio,  on  his  way  to  Spain, 
landed  at  Massilia,  On  learning  this  astonishing  news,  that  the 
war  was  to  be  waged  in  Italy,  not  in  Spain  and  Africa,  Scipio 
promptly  changed  his  plans,  despatched  his  brother  Gnjeus  to 
Spain,  —  where  he  afterwards  joined  him  as  proconsul,  —  and 
returned  to  Pisse.  Here  he  took  command  of  the  Italian  forces, 
and  summoning  his  colleague,  Sempronius,  from  Sicily,  where  he 
was  on  his  way  to  attack  Carthage,  hastened  to  Cisalpine  Gaul  to 
meet  the  invader  in  the  valley  of  the  Po. 

^  The  Passage  of  the  Alps.  —  Hannibal  meanwhile  had  made  his 
way  over  the  Alps  with  enormous  loss  and  suffering,  and  reached 
the  valley  of  the  Po  at  about  the  same   time   as   Scipio.^      His 

1  It  has  generally  been  held  that  he  crossed  by  the  route  of  the  Little  St. 
Bernard;  it  seems  probable,  however,  that  it  was  by  a  more  southern  pass, 
probably  Mont  Cenis  or  Genevre. 


THE  BATTLE    OF   THE    TREE  I  A.  117 

reasons  for  taking  this  difficult  route  were  well  founded,  although 
he  seems  to  have  underrated  the  difficulties  and  hardships  of  the 
march,  and  to  have  undertaken  it  too  late  in  the  season.  His 
army  was  reduced  to  less  than  half  its  number,  and  was  in  a  terrible 
state  of  exhaustion.  But  he  knew  that  the  Roman  power  in  Gaul 
was  not  yet  firmly  established,  and  he  reckoned  with  confidence 
upon  making  the  Gauls  his  auxiliaries.  In  this  he  was  not  de- 
ceived. Cisalpine  Gaul  was  at  once  lost  to  Rome,  and  its  people 
composed  a  constant  and  reliable  part  of  Hannibal's  army  through- 
out his  Italian  campaigns.^ 

Operations  in  the  Valley  of  the  Po.  —  Hannibal  ended  this 
eventful  year  with  a  brilliant  victory.  The  newly  founded  colony 
of  Placentia,  upon  the  Po,  was  the  base  of  operations  for  the 
Roman  commander.  In  a  cavalry  skirmish  upon  the  river  Ticinus, 
Scipio  was  repulsed  and  severely  wounded,  after  which  he  en- 
camped upon  the  river  Trebia,  about  six  miles  from  Placentia. 
Here  he  was  shortly  joined  by  the  army  of  his  colleague  Sempronius, 
who  now  took  command,  Scipio  being  still  disabled  by  his  wound. 
Hannibal  was  encamped  on  the  other  side  of  the  Trebia,  about 
five  miles  distant.^ 

Battle  of  the  Trebia.  —  Hannibal,  like  all  great  commanders, 
understood  thoroughly  how  to  reckon  with  his  antagonists,  and 
had  no  difficulty  in  drawing  the  rash  and  impatient  Sempronius 
into  an  ambuscade.  It  was  already  December,  and  the  river  — 
a  mere  mountain  stream  —  was  swollen  with  rains.  Early  one 
morning,  before  the  Roman  soldiers  had  breakfasted,  the  Numid- 
ian  cavalry  of  Hannibal  appeared  before  the  camp,  and  by 
skilful  manoeuvring  and  feigned  flight,  succeeded  in  enticing  the 
Romans  across  the  river.  The  water  was  icy  cold,  and  almost  up 
to  their  necks  ;  they  were  hungry  as  well  as  chilled  to  the  bone  ; 

1  The  Cenomani,  however,  in  the  country  about  Verona,  held  with  Rome. 

2  The  accounts  of  the  battle,  given  by  Livy  and  Polybius,  do  not  allow  it 
to  be  determined  absolutely  on  which  side  of  the  river  each  army  was  encamped. 
It  is  probable  that  the  Romans  were  on  the  right  bank,  and  that  the  battle 
took  place  upon  the  left. 


BATTLE    OF  LAKE    TRASLMENUS.  .  119 

and  then,  while  engaged  in  an  unequal  fight  with  Hannibal's  well- 
fed  and  well-cared-for  soldiers,  they  were  suddenly  assailed  in 
the  flank  and  rear  by  fresh  troops,  who  had  been  placed  in 
ambuscade.  The  army  was  cut  to  pieces,  only  a  remnant  escaping 
to  Placentia.  The  year  of  Scipio's  consulship  being  now  at  an 
end,  he  repaired  to  Spain,  to  join  his  brother  Gnaeus. 

Invasion  of  Etruria.  —  The  following  year  Hannibal  B.C.  217. 
gained  a  still  greater  victory.  The  new  consul,  Gaius 
Flaminius  (p.  112),  had  stationed  himself  at  Arretium  {Arezzo)  in 
the  upper  valley  of  the  Arno,  in  order  to  block  Hannibal's  passage 
into  Etruria.  The  position  seemed  every  way  a  favorable  one. 
But  Hannibal  always  did  what  was  unexpected.  Crossing  the 
Apennines  early  in  the  spring,  long  before  the  passage  was  thought 
practicable,  he  made  his  way  with  severe  suffering  and  losses 
through  the  marshy  region  of  the  lower  Arno,  and  then  by  a  bold 
flank  march  placed  himself  between  Flaminius  and  Rome,  giving 
notice  of  his  position  by  burning  and  destroying  everything  around 
him.     In  the  passage  of  the  marshes  he  lost  one  eye. 

Battle  of  Lake  Trasimenus. — Without  waiting  for  his  colleague, 
who  was  at  Ariminum,  Flaminius  hastily  set  out  in  pursuit,  only  to 
fall  into  the  trap  set  for  him  by  the  wily  Carthaginian.  His  road 
led  through  a  narrow  defile  upon  the  northern  shore  of  Lake 
Trasimenus.  Here  Hannibal  prepared  his  ambuscade,  and  when 
the  Roman  lines,  in  the  early  morning,  -emerged  from  the  defile 
into  the  open  space  beyond,  they  were  furiously  assaulted  in 
front,  in  the  rear,  and  on  the  flank.  A  heavy  fog  prevented 
them  from  even  seeing  their  assailants,  and  they  had  no  escape 
except  into  the  lake,  in  which  many  of  them  were  drowned.  The 
Roman  army  was  annihilated  :  Flaminius  himself  was  slain  by  one 
of  those  Gauls  whose  enmity  he  had  incurred  by  his  agrarian  law 
fifteen  years  before. 

Hannibal  in  Southern  Italy.  —  After  this  crushing  victory, 
Hannibal  proceeded  to  Southern  Italy,  expecting  to  rally  to  his 
support  the  Sabellian  nations  of  that  region,  as  he  had  the  Gallic 
tribes  of  the  north.      He  gave  himself  out  as  the   champion  of 


120  .  THE   SECOND  PUNIC    WAR. 

the  oppressed  Italians  against  their  Roman  conquerors  :  what- 
ever Romans  or  Latins  fell  into  his  hands  he  slew  or  put  in 
chains,  but  the  citizens  of  the  allied  cities  he  dismissed  to  their 
homes,  hoping  thus  to  secure  their  friendship.  But  he  made  a 
mistake  similar  to  that  of  Napoleon  III.,  when  he  reckoned  upon 
the  support  or  the  neutrality  of  the  southern  Germans  in  his  war 
against  Prussia.  "  Blood  is  thicker  than  water."  The  Sabellian 
tribes  were  kinsmen  of  the  Romans,  and  had  no  fellowship  with 
the  Phoenician  invaders.  Moreover,  they  did  not  feel  themselves 
oppressed.  Except  for  their  contributions  of  troops  to  the  Roman 
army,  they  were  left  to  govern  themselves  as  they  pleased.  Not  a 
city  opened  its  gates  to  Hannibal ;  not  a  tribe  allied  itself  with  him. 
/'Fabius  Maximus.  —  In  Rome  no  attempt  was  made  to  conceal 
the  extent  of  the  disaster.  "We  have  been  beaten  in  a  great 
battle  "  was  the  announcement  made  by  the  praetor  to  the  assem- 
bled people.  It  was  decided  to  appoint  a  dictator  and  —  in  the 
absence  of  the  surviving  consul  —  the  people  by  a  formal  vote 
designated  Quintus  Fabius  Maximus  for  this  office.  Fabius  Maxi- 
mus was  descended  from  the  hero  of  the  Second  Samnite  War  — 
a  man  equally  illustrious,  but  of  a  very  different  type.  The  grand- 
father was  distinguished  for  boldness  and  enterprise,  amounting 
sometimes  to  rashness ;  the  dictator  was  slow  and  cautious,  and 
by  these  quahties  earned  the  surname  Cunctator  —  "delayer." 
The  "  Fabian  "  policy,  which  he  adopted,  was  to  avoid  a  general 
engagement,  watch  his  enemy  assiduously,  and  weary  him  out 
with  resultless  manoeuvring.  Knowing  very  well  that  there  was 
nothing  that  Hannibal  so  much  desired  as  a  pitched  battle,  he 
determined  that  in  this  at  least  he  should  be  disappointed ;  and 
in  this  policy  he  persisted  in  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  his 
officers  and  the  people  of  Rome. 

Operations  upon  the  Aufidus.  —  So  the  year  217  came  to  an 
end  with  no  further  decisive  actions.  The  dictator's  term  of  office 
had  expired,  and  the  consuls  of  the  following  year  were  divided 
in  temper  and  policy.  The  patrician  consul,  Lucius  ^milius 
Paulus,  an  able  and  experienced  officer,  had  been  taught  by  the 


THE  BATTLE    OF  CANNM. 


121 


disasters  of  former  years  to  recognize  Hannibal's  genius, 
as  well  as  the  superiority  of  his  troops,  especially  in  B.C.  216. 
cavalry.  His  plebeian  colleague,  Gaius  Terentius  Varro, 
rash  and  inexperienced,  considered  only  that  his  army  was  twice  as 
large  as  that  of  Hannibal,  and  was  determined  to  force  an  engage- 
ment. The  consuls  commanded  on  alternate  days,  and  Hannibal 
knew  very  well  when  it  was  Varro's  day.  He  had  captured  the 
Roman  magazines  at  Cannae,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Aufidus 
near  its   mouth,  and   the   consular  army  hastened  to  the  spot, 


PLAN  OF  THE 

BATTLE    OF    CANNJ: 

After  Strachan-Davidson. 


GREATER  ROMAN  CAMP  C 


1"  ....  ""^^^-RMih ^ 


^PRICAN 


■^FfilCAN 


encamping  on  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  nearer  the  sea.  They 
established  also  a  smaller  camp  upon  the  right  bank,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  watching  Hannibal,  and  preventing  foraging.  This  division 
of  their  forces  was  made  safe  by  their  superiority  in  numbers.  .-^ 

'  Battle  of  Cannae.  —  On  his  day  of  command  Varro  led  his) 
troops  from  the  larger  camp  and  crossed  the  river,  drawing  up  all 
his  forces  in  line  of  battle,  facing  the  south :  the  Roman  cavalry 
occupied  his  right  wing ;  that  of  the  allies,  the  left.     The  infantry, 
in  the  centre,  were  formed  in  heavy  columns,  by  which  they  lost  the 


A^^^ 
^-i^ 


122  •      THE  SECOND  PUNIC    WAR. 

special  advantage  of  the  manipular  arrangement,  and  there  appear 
to  have  been  no  reserves.  Hannibal,  too,  had  his  cavalry  upon  the 
two  wings,  and  his  centre  was  composed  of  his  Spanish  and  Gallic 
infantry,  arranged  in  the  form  of  a  crescent,  with  its  convex  side 
towards  the  Romans.  Between  these  and  the  cavalry  were  the 
Libyan  troops,  his  chief  reliance,  drawn  up  in  heavy  columns. 
Thus,  when  the  Roman  infantry  had  easily  driven  in  the  Spanish 
and  Gallic  troops,  and  were  eagerly  pursuing  them,  they  found 
themselves  suddenly  attacked  on  both  flanks  by  the  Libyans,  who 
had  been  arranged  for  this  purpose.  Their  heavy  columns,  crowded 
in  between  the  two  lines  of  assailants,  were  helpless  ;  and  meantime 
Hasdrubal,  at  the  head  of  the  Carthaginian  cavalry,  had  routed 
the  Roman  horse,  and  now  wheeled  about,  and  attacked  the 
legions  in  the  rear.  The  slaughter  was  fearful.  It  is  said  that 
Hannibal  sent  to  Carthage  a  peck  of  gold  rings,  the  distinctive 
badge  of  the  Roman  knights.  The  consul/ ^milius  Paulus,  Ser- 
vilius,  the  consul  of  the  previous  year,  two  quaestors,  twenty-one 
military  tribunes,  and  eighty  senators  were  slain  in  the  battle. 

Results  of  the  Battle.  —  A  few  of  the  survivors  made  their  way 
to  Canusium,  and  the  consul,  Varro,  escaped  with  a  handful  of 
men  to  Venusia.  And  now  it  seemed  as  if  the  expectations  of 
Hannibal  were  at  last  justified.  All  Southern  Italy  joined  his 
standard,  and  Capua,  the  second  city  in  Italy,  received  him  within 
its  walls.  Here  he  spent  the  winter,  and  his  army  is  said  to  have 
been  greatly  demoralized  by  the  luxuries  and  corruptions  of  this 
wealthy  town. 

II.  To  THE  End  of  the  War,  b.c.  202. 

Tfews  of  the  Defeat  in  Rome.  —  It  can  be  imagined  what  was 
the  consternation  at  Rome  when  the  news  of  this  third  and  most 
crushing  defeat  was  brought.  The  city  was  so  full  of  mourning 
that  the  festival  of  Ceres,  celebrated  by  women,  had  to  be  omitted, 
because  it  was  not  lawful  for  persons  in  mourning  to  take  part  in 
it,  and  there  were  no  matrons  who  were  not  in  mourning :  by 


CAPTURE    OF  SYRACUSE. 


123 


an  ordinance  of  the  Senate  it  was  directed  that  mourning  should 
not  continue  longer  than  a  month.  But  there  was  no  panic  or 
thought  of  submission.  The  Senate  refused  to  ransom  the  soldiers 
who  had  allowed  themselves  to  be  captured,  but  raised  new  levies, 
even  arming  slaves  and  persons  of  no  repute.  The  praetor,  Marcus 
Claudius  Marcellus,  —  the  best  soldier  that  Rome  now  had,  —  was 
at  once  despatched  to  the  support  of  Varro  with  fresh  troops ; 
and  never  did  the  Senate  display  its  staunch  patriotism  more 
nobly  than  in  voting  to  thank  the  consul  Varro  —  its  bitter  enemy, 
and  the  author  of  the  disaster  —  "  because  he  had  not  despaired 
of  the  republic." 

The  Years  after  Cannae.  —  Hannibal,  for  his  part,  was  now,  by 
the  victory  of  Cannae  and  the  occupation  of  Capua,  at  the  summit 
of  his  prosperity.      For  two   or  three  years  longer  he 
continued  to  gain.     The  year  after  Cannae  the  vener-     B.C.  215. 
able  Hiero,  king  of  Syracuse,  the  faithful  ally  of  Rome, 
died,  and  his  worthless  successor  carried  his  city  over  to 
alliance  with  Carthage.     Two  years  later  Tarentum,  the     B.C.  213. 
third  city  of  Italy,  was  gained  by  treachery,  and  in  the 
same  year  Hannibal  made  a  treaty  with  Philip  V.,  king  of  Mace- 
donia, by  which  the  Romans  were  drawn  into  the  brief  and  unim- 
portant contest  known  as  the 
First   Macedonian  War.     But 
the  great  object  of  his  hostil- 
ity, the  Roman  empire  in  Italy, 
stood  as  firm  as  a  rock.    Rome 
never  relaxed    its  efforts,  but 
under  the  leadership  of  Mar- 
cellus, the  "  sword  of  Rome," 

and  Fabius  Maximus,  its  "  shield,"  held  its  own,  and  began  slowly 
to  win  back  what  it  had  lost.  The  Latin  colonies  never  swerved 
for  a  moment  from  their  loyalty. 

Capture  of  Syracuse.  —  In  the  year  212  Syracuse  was  captured 
by  Marcellus,  after  a  siege  of  several  months.  It  had  been  de- 
fended chiefly  by  the  genius  of  the   celebrated  mathematician 


MARCELLUS,    THE   SWORD    OF    ROME. 


124  THE   SECOND  PUNIC    WAR. 

Archimedes,  whose  mechanical  contrivances  foiled  all  the  efforts 
of  the  besiegers,  so  that  they  were  at  last  forced  to  reduced  it  by 
blockade.  According  to  the  savage  custom  of  the  ancients  the 
city  was  given  up  to  pillage,  and  in  the  confusion  Archimedes 
perished.  Marcellus  had  wished  to  spare  his  life ;  but  he  was 
slain  in  a  passion  by  an  ignorant  soldier,  who  found  him  engaged 
in  studying  diagrams  drawn  in  the  sand,  and  to  whom  he  only 
cried  out  "  Don't  disturb  my  circles."  ^  Syracuse,  with  its  territory, 
was  now  annexed  to  the  Roman  province  of  Sicily. 

Capture  of  Capua  and  Tarentum.  —  Before  the  fall  of  Syra- 
cuse, the  Romans  had  laid  siege  to  Capua,  and  Hannibal,  whose 
strength  was  in  cavalry,  and  who  was  weak  in  the  means  of  assault- 
ing fortified  places,  could  not  succeed  in  drawing  the  besieging 
army  from  its  intrenchments.    As  a  last  means  of  raising  the  siege, 
he  marched  upon  Rome,  hoping  that  the  besiegers  would  follow 
him,  in  order  to  defend  the  city.     But  the  city  was  found  provided 
with  defenders,  and  the  army  at  Capua  never  relaxed  its 
B.C.  211.     grip.     Capua  was  taken,  its  leading  men  were  executed, 
and  the  city  itself  deprived  of  all  political  rights,  being 
reduced  to  the  rank  of  a  village,  and  governed  by  Roman 
B.C.  209.    prcefects.     Two  years  later  Tarentum  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the    Romans,   and    Hannibal's   venture   was   plainly 
doomed  to  failure,  unless  speedy  assistance  should  come. 
Affairs  in  Spain.  —  Hannibal  had  left  his  brother  Hasdrubal 
in  Spain,  and  the  war  had  been  waged  in  that  country  with  varying 
fortunes.     At  first  the  brothers  Publius  and  Gnaeus  Scipio,  "  two 
thunderbolts  of  war,"  had  gained  great  successes ;  then  both  had 
been  defeated  and  killed  within  a  month  of  each  other,  and  the 
young  Publius  Scipio,  son  of  the  consul  of  2 1 8,  was  elected  by  the 
people  to  command  in  their  place.     He  soon  regained  the  entire 
peninsula ;  but  Hasdrubal,  after  the  loss  of  a  great  battle,  succeeded 
in  eluding  the  victor,  made  his  way  across  the  Pyrenees,  and  hastened 
to  the  relief  of  his  brother  in  Italy.     In  207  he  appeared  in  the 
valley  of  the  Po  at  the  head  of  a  large  and  well-trained  army. 
1  Noli  turbare  circulos  meos ! 


THE    WAR  IN  AFRICA.  125 

Battle  of  the  Metaurus.  —  Hannibal  was  at  this  time  B.C.  207.  • 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Venusia,  in  Apuha,  watched  by 
the  consul  Gains  Claudius  Nero,  while  his  colleague  Marcus  Livius 
was  watching  for  Hasdrubal  in  the  north.  Nero  waylaid  some 
messengers  sent  to  Hannibal  by  his  brother,  and  having  thus 
learned  of  the  approach  of  the  invading  army,  adopted  a  sudden 
and  bold  plan.  Leaving  the  principal  part  of  his  army  in  an 
intrenched  camp,  he  hastened  with  a  few  cohorts  of  choice  troops, 
succeeded  in  uniting  with  Livius  before  the  arrival  of  Hasdrubal's 
army,  and  attacked  the  enemy  at  the  river  Metaurus.  This 
decisive  battle  was  determined  by  Nero's  prompt  sagacity.  Seeing 
that  on  the  right  wing,  where  he  was  placed,  the  nature  of  the 
ground  did  not  allow  the  free  manoeuvring  of  all  his  troops,  he 
withdrew  a  portion  of  them,  passed  round  the  rear  unnoticed,  and 
fell  upon  the  right  flank  of  the  enemy  with  overwhelming  force. 
The  victory  was  complete,  the  Carthaginians  losing  almost  as 
heavily  as  the  Romans  at  Cannae.  Hasdrubal  himself  fell  in  the 
battle. 

Failure  of  Hannibal.  —  As  soon  as  the  battle  was  over  Nero 
rapidly  led  his  cohorts  back  to  Venusia,  carrying  with  him  the 
head  of  Hasdrubal,  which  was  thrown  into  the  camp  of  Hannibal, 
and  gave  him  the  first  news  of  the  disaster.  The  last  hope  of 
success  was  now  gone  :  it  only  remained  for  him  to  retire  into  the 
southern  recesses  of  the  peninsula,  where  he  remained  until  sum- 
moned by  his  country  to  protect  her  in  turn  against  invasion. 

War  in  Africa.  —  The  Romans  had  learned  by  the  experience 
of  this  war  the  folly  of  constantly  changing  their  commanders. 
By  re-elections  and  extraordinary  commands  they  had  used  the 
services  of  Fabius  and  Marcellus  for  successive  years  in  the  critical 
period  of  the  war.  The  young  Scipio,  too,  had  been  kept  year 
after  year  in  Spain,  where  he  learned  thoroughly  the  art 
of  command  ;  and  after  his  consulship  his  command  was  B.C.  205. 
continued  to  him  by  the  Senate  year  after  year  ^  until  he 

1  The  device  of  proroguing  commands,  which  might  be  continued  indefi- 
nitely, was  a  salutary  corrective  to  the  practice  of  annual  commands. 


126 


THE   SECOND  PUNIC    WAR. 


brought  the  war  to  a  close.  Spain  was  now  thoroughly  subdued, 
and  the  policy  of  Scipio  was  to  "  carry  the  war  into  Africa," 
Here  he  was  assisted  by  the  Numidian  king  Masinissa,  whose  rival, 
Syphax,  was  the  ally  of  Carthage.  After  two  years  of  warfare 
between  these  antagonists,  Hannibal  was  summoned  home  from 
Italy,  and  the  war  was  finished  upon  the  soil  of  Africa. 
^  Battle  of  Zama.  —  The  final  batde  of  the  war  was  fought  at 
Zama,  in  i3.c.  202.     Scipio,  a  general  of  original  genius,  in  this 


battle  took  the  final  step  in  the  development  of  the  legion." 
Instead  of  arranging  the  army  in  the  usual  order  of  the  quincunx 
(p.  70),  by  which  the  maniples  of  the  second  rank  or  line  stood 
behind  the  spaces  of  the  first,  he  left  these  spaces  open,  in  order 

1  From  a  bust  in  the  Rospigliosi  Palace  at  Rome. 

2  This  is  Delbriick's  view.  It  is  at  any  rate  certain  that  at  Cannre,  fourteen 
years  before,  the  Roman  troops  were  in  a  crowded  mass,  incapable  of  manoeu- 
vring, while  in  the  Macedonian  wars,  which  follow  immediately  after  Zama,  the 
legion  was  in  its  highest  condition  of  flexibility  and  efficiency. 


THE  BATTLE    OF  ZAMA.  127 

that  the  elephants,  of  which  Hannibal  had  an  unusual  number, 
might  not  trample  upon  the  close  masses  of  troops,  but  might  find 
a  passage  between  the  divisions.  K  still  more  important  innova- 
tion was  to  draw  up  the  three  lines  at  a  considerable  interval 
from  one  another.  By  this  the  close  order  of  the  phalanx  was 
completely  abandoned,  and  the  legion  acquired  its  characteristic 
flexibility,  since  not  only  each  of  the  three  hues,  but  each  maniple 
or  group  of  maniples  (three  maniples  making  a  cohort),  had  now 
room  to  manoeuvre  independently.  The  result  justified  his  calcu- 
lations. The  light-armed  troops,  pouring  through  the  open  spaces, 
drove  back  the  elephants  in  disorder  upon  the  Carthaginian  ranks  ; 
and  at  the  same  time  Hannibal's  cavalry  was  routed  and  driven 
in  flight  by  the  Roman  horsemen,  aided  efficiently  by  those  of 
Masinissa.  Scipio  then  moved  his  second  and  third  lines  to  the 
right  and  left,  and  threw  them  upon  the  flanks  of  the  enemy, 
while  his  cavalry,  returning  from  the  pursuit,  assaulted  them  in 
the  rear,  and  completed  the  victory. 

The  Roman  Legion.  —  The  legion  remained  essentially  un- 
altered from  the  time  of  Scipio  to  that  of  Marius,  a  century  later. 
The  three  lines,  the  hastati,  the  principes,  and  triarii,  were,  in  this 
period,  drawn  up  at  a  distance  apart,  and  brought  successively  into 
action ;  but  such  was  the  prowess  of  the  Roman  soldiers,  and  the 
skfll  with  which  they  were  handled,  that  the  triarii,  or  reserves, 
were  seldom  called  for.  The  armament  too  was  changed.  The 
short  heavy  javelin  {pilum)  had  already  taken  the  place  of  the 
long  spear  characteristic  of  the  phalanx ;  and  it  appears  to  have 
been  Scipio  who  armed  his  troops  with  the  short  Spanish  sword, 
with  which  he  had  become  acquainted  in  his  Spanish  wars.  The 
soldier  first  hurled  his  javelins  {e?ninus)  with  tremendous  force 
into  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  and  then,  drawing  his  sword,  followed 
up  with  a  hand-to-hand  assault  {commi7ius)  —  like  a  volley  of 
musketry  followed  by  a  bayonet  charge. 

Terms  of  Peace. —  Peace  was  at  once  made  (201).  Spain,  with 
its  islands,  was  surrendered  to  Rome,  and  was  organized  into  two 
provinces,  Hither  and  Farther.     Syphax  was  carried  captive  to 


128  THE   SECOND  PUNIC    WAR. 

Rome,  and  Masinissa  recognized  as  independent  king  of  Numidia, 
with  territories  enclosing  those  of  Carthage  on  the  south  as  well 
as  the  west :  from  this  time,  for  more  than  fifty  years,  he  was  a 
steadfast  and  serviceable  ally  of  Rome.  Carthage  gave  up  all  her 
war- vessels  except  twenty,  and  paid  a  war  indemnity  of  4000  tal- 
ents ($5,000,000),  besides  200  talents  ($250,000)  annually  for 
fifty  years.  Rome  was  now  the  only  power  in  the  Western  Medi- 
terranean. Scipio,  from  his  conquest  of  Africa,  received  the  sur- 
name Afi-icaiius. 

'  Hannibal.  —  Hannibal's  career  was  not  ended  by  the  battle  of 
Zama.  He  proved  himself  as  great  in  peace  and  in  the  field  of 
administration,  as  in  the  conduct  of  war.  His  financial  reforms 
and  economical  administration  enabled  his  countrymen  not  only 

to  pay  the  indemnity  to  Rome,  but  rapidly  to  regain 
B,0.  195.     their  old  prosperity.     Again  the  animosity  of  Hannibal 

appeared  a  menace  to  Rome,  and  the  Senate  sent  an 
embassy  to  Carthage,  probably  to  demand  his  surrender.  He 
escaped  and  took  refuge  in  the  court  of  King  Antiochus,  where 
he  became  the  leading  counsellor  of  that  monarch  in  taking  up 
war  against  Rome. 

Livius  and  Nero.  —  Livius  and  Nero,  the  victors  upon  the 
Metaurus,  were  personal  enemies.  Livius  had  been  condemned 
and  heavily  fined  by  the  popular  assembly,  shortly  before  the  war, 
for  some  offence,  the  precise  nature  of  which  is  not  known,  and 
had  retired  in  dudgeon  to  his  country  estate,  where  he  lived  in 
solitude,  a  morose  and  misanthropic  life.  The  censors  had  forced 
him  to  return  to  the  city,  to  shave  his  beard  and  put  on  decent 
clothes,  and  to  take  his  seat  again  in  the  Senate.     He  was  then 

elected  consul,  and  did  a  man's  duty  in  the  office.  But 
B.C.  204.     he  had  not  forgotten  his  grievance.     Three  years  later 

the  caprice  of  the  elections  made  the  two  men  colleagues 
again,  in  the  censorship.  In  the  exercise  of  their  duties  their  enmity 
broke  out  in  spiteful  and  unseemly  factiousness.  In  the  review  of 
the  cavalry  each  censor  ordered  his  colleague  to  sell  his  horse 
{equum  vendere),  the  technical  expression  for  removal  from  that 


THE    GREAT  MOTHER.  129 

honorable  corps.  Then,  in  drawing  up  the  Hst  of  citizens,  first, 
Nero  declared  Livius  an  aerarius^  thus  depriving  him  of  his 
vote  in  the  tribes ;  and  Livius  capped  the  climax  of  absurdity 
by  degrading  the  entire  Roman  people  to  the  same  rank,  with  the 
exception  of  the  single  tribe  {Maecia)  which  had  voted  for  his 
acquittal,  giving  as  his  reasons  that  they  had  condemned  him  un- 
justly, and  afterwards,  without  any  new  evidence,  had  made  him 
consul  and  censor.  Of  this  action,  the  effect  of  which  would  have 
been  to  destroy  the  very  framework  of  government,  the  consuls 
of  course  took  no  account. 

The  Worship  of  the  Great  Mother.  —  While  Hanni- 
bal was  still  in  Italy,  it  was  read  in  the  Sibylline  books  B.C.  205. 
(p.  36)  that  a  foreign  invader  would  be  obliged  to  leave 
the  soil  of  Italy  if  the  Great  Mother  should  be  brought  to  the  city ; 
and  commissioners  were  sent  to  Asia  for  this  purpose.  Cybele, 
the  mother  of  the  gods,  was  the  special  deity  of  the  Phrygians  of 
Asia  Minor,  worshipped  at  Pessinus  with  noisy  and  frantic  rites. 
The  prophecy  directed  that  the  goddess,  when  brought  to  Rome, 
should  be  formally  received  by  "  the  best  Roman  "  ;  and  while  the 
commissioners  were  absent  upon  their  errand,  the  Senate  decided 
that  the  best  Roman  was  Publius  Scipio,^  cousin  of  Africanus. 
The  chief  ally  of  Rome  at  this  time  in  Asia  was  Attains,  king 
of  Pergamus,  and  by  his  intervention  the  priests  at  Pessinus  were 
persuaded  to  deliver  to  the  Roman  envoys  the  meteoric  stone 
which  symbolized  the  goddess.  It  was  brought  in  a  ship  to  Ostia, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber,  where  it  was  delivered  to  Scipio,  and 
then  reverently  conveyed  to  Rome  by  the  matrons  who  had 
gathered  at  Ostia  to  receive  it.  The  worship  of  the  Great 
Mother,  at  about  the  season  of  the  Vernal  Equinox,  became  one 
of  the  favorite  cults  of  the  Roman  populace,  and  her  processions 
of  priests,  clad  in  Asiatic  costume,  with  noisy  chants  and  beating 

1  This  term  was  applied  to  those  who  had  no  land,  and  consequently  no  vote 
in  the  tribes  (pp.  88-90).  For  an  account  of  these  incidents,  see  Livy,  xxvii. 
34;   xxix.  37. 

2  Called  Nasica^  from  his  prominent  nose. 


130 


THE   SECOND  PUNIC    WAR, 


of  tambourines,  begging  from  the  by-standers  money  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  ritual/  was  a  novel  sight  in  the  streets  of  Rome,  by 
no  means  acceptable  to  the  sober-minded  votaries  of  the  old 
religion. 

1  All  the  forms  of  worship  which  belonged  regularly  to  the  religion  of  the 
State  were  maintained  by  appropriations  of  money  made  by  the  Senate  out  of 
the  treasury. 


ETRUSCAN    TOMB    AT    CORNETO, 
Showing  the  Construction  of  the  Roof  with  the  Innpluviur 


THE  NATIONS   OF  THE  EAST.  131 


CHAPTER    X. 

THE   WARS   IN  THE   EAST. 
I.    The  Second  Macedonian  War. 

Foreign  Conquest.  —  The  war  with  Hannibal  was  followed  by 
a  period  of  about  fifty  years,  occupied  with  foreign  wars,  chiefly 
in  the  East.  In  these  wars  Rome  gained  many  brilliant  victories, 
and  acquired  an  enormous  increase  of  power  and  territory,  so  that 
at  the  end  of  the  period,  B.C.  146,  she  stood  without  rival  as  the 
first  power  in  the  world.  But  along  with  the  acquisition  of  foreign 
dominion  and  of  private  treasures,  there  came  deterioration  of 
character  and  a  rapid  loss  of  public  spirit.  These  years,  which 
witnessed  the  building  up  of  the  Roman  empire,  were  the  period 
in  which  the  causes  of  corruption  and  downfall  were  most  rapidly 
developed.  Power  and  wealth  became  more  and  more  the  sole 
object. 

The  East :  Egypt.  —  There  were  at  this  time  three  great  empires 
in  the  East,  one  in  each  continent.^  Egypt,  under  the  Ptolemies, 
was  in  friendly  relations  with  Rome,  and  made  the  Senate  the 
guardian  of  its  youthful  king.  It  took  no  active  part  in  the  great 
wars  of  the  age,  but  the  two  other  great  empires,  of  Asia  and 
Macedonia,  were  its  constant  rivals  and  enemies. 

Asia.  —  All  of  Western  Asia  was  nominally  under  the  rule  of  the 
dynasty  of  the  Seleucldae,^  now  under  its  most  powerful  king, 
Antiochus  III.,  the  Great :  in  his  time  came  the  collapse  of  this 

1  See  map  of  the  Mediterranean  Lands  at  the  beginning  of  the  Second 
Punic  War  (p.  118). 

2  The  descendants  of  Seleucus  Nicator  (d.  B.C.  280),  one  of  the  generals 
of  Alexander  the  Great.  At  the  disruption  of  Alexander's  empire  he  secured 
the  largest  and  most  important  share. 


132 


THE    WARS  IN   THE   EAST. 


empire.  In  the  far  East,  upon  the  Caspian  Sea,  the  Parthians  had 
already  achieved  their  independence  :  in  time  they  grew  to  be 
the  great  Asiatic  power.  In  Asia  Minor  Antiochus  ruled  over  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean  and  the  fertile  regions  of  the  interior, 
while  the  Greek  cities  upon  the  ^gean  paid  him  tribute.  But 
in  the  mountainous  regions  of  the  north  a  group  of  petty  states 
—  Bithynia,  Pontus,  Cappadocia,  Galatia,  etc.  —  were  practically 
independent ;  at  Pergamus,  in  the  west,  King  Attalus  ruled  over 
a  small  but  prosperous  and  well-ordered  state ;  while  the  island  of 
Rhodes  —  "the  Venice  of  antiquity"  —  was  a  flourishing  com- 
mercial republic.  Both  Rhodes  and  Pergamus,  being  naturally 
hostile  to  Antiochus,  were  steadfast  allies  of  Rome. 

Greece.  —  The  kingdom  of  Macedonia,  now  under  Philip  V., 
was  the  third  of  the  great  powers  of  the  East.  A  considerable 
portion  of  Greece  was  subject  to  him,  while 
other  Grecian  states  maintained  their  isola- 
tion and  independence.  But  the  feeling  of 
the  necessity  of  union  had  gathered  most 
of  the  Greek  states  into  two  confederacies,  — 
the  Achaean  league,  embracing  most  of  the 
Peloponnesus,  and  the  ^tolian  league  in 
Northern  Greece.^  The  rude  and  predatory 
^tolians  were  allies  of  Rome  from  the  first;  the  cautious  and 
conservative  Achaeans  were  for  a  time  neutral,  but  afterwards  united 
with  Rome.  Thus  in  the  wars  which  followed,  Philip  and  Anti- 
ochus were  natural  allies,  while  the  independent  states  of  Greece, 
as  well  as  Rhodes  and  Pergamus,  joined  with  Rome.  By  the 
supineness  and  preoccupation  of  Antiochus,  Philip  was  left  to  con- 
tend single-handed  against  Rome  and  her  allies ;  and,  after  the 
defeat  of  Philip,  Antiochus  in  his  turn  was  easily  overpowered. 

Second  Macedonian  War.  —  T-he  first  of  the  great  series  of 
wars  in  this  period  was  waged  against  Philip  of  Macedon.  In  this 
war  the  decisive  battle  was  fought  by  Titus  Quinctius  Flamininus 

1  These  leagues  had  existed  for  a  long  time,  but  were  reorganized  about 
the  middle  of  the  second  century  before  Christ. 


PHILIP  V. 


BATTLE   OF  CYNOSCEPHALM.  133 

at  Cynoscephalae  {Dog's  Heads),  a  range  of  low  steep  hills  in 
Thessaly,  in  the  year  197.  In  this  battle  the  Roman  legion  and 
the  Macedonian  phalanx  were  for  the  first  time  brought  into  con- 
flict with  one  another.  The  Roman  legion,  as  we  have  seen 
(p.  69),  consisted  of  thirty  independent  companies  (maniples), 
in  which  each  man  was  trained  to  act  promptly  and  efficiently  by 
himself,  and  the  openness  of  the  order  gave  space  for  individual 
prowess.     It  had  now  attained  its  greatest  efficiency. 

The  Macedonian  Phalanx.  —  The  Macedonian  phalanx  con-  "^ 
sisted  of  sixteen  ranks  of  men,  arranged  in  close  order  —  each 
man  having  only  half  the  space  of  the  Roman  legionary  —  and 
armed  with  spears  over  twenty  feet  long.  The  five  front  ranks 
couched  their  spears  so  as  to  present  to  the  enemy  an  unbroken 
wall  of  five  rows  of  points,  while  those  in  the  rear  rested  theirs 
upon  the  shoulders  of  those  in  front.  A  mass  of  men  thus  armed, 
and  closely  knit  together,  was  impregnable  against  assault,  and 
irresistible  when  moving  upon  level  ground ;  but  it  had  no  power 
to  adapt  itself  to  a  change  of  circumstances,  and  when  once  dis- 
turbed by  irregularities  of  ground,  or  assaulted  in  the  rear,  was 
powerless.  Both  of  these  defects  were  seen  in  the  battle  of 
Cynoscephalae. 

Battle  of  Cynoscephalae.  —  In  this  battle,  which  was  brought  on 
unexpectedly  upon  a  stormy  day,  the  battle  was  opened  by  a  cavalry 
skirmish  unfavorable  to  the  Romans,  who  were  protected  by  the 
efficient  cavalry  of  the  ^tolians.  Phihp,  flushed  by  his  success, 
brought  his  phalanx  rapidly  over  the  range  of  hills.  The  right 
wing  maintained  its  order,  and  carried  all  before  it ;  but  the  left 
wing  fell  into  confusion  from  the  rapid  march,  and  was  easily 
routed,  upon  which  the  victorious  Romans  promptly  swung  round 
to  the  left,  and  took  the  victorious  phalanx  in  the  rear,  where  it 
had  no  power  of  resistance.     This  victory  ended  the  war.  ^ 

Congress  at  Corinth.  —  The  following  spring  Flamininus  con-  — 
vened  a  congress  of  the  Greek  states  at  Corinth,  where,  amid  the 
enthusiastic  applause  of  the  Assembly,  he  declared  Greece  free  of 
Macedonian  rule.      Rome,  satisfied  with  having  placed  a  check 


134 


THE    WARS  IN   THE   EAST. 


upon  the  formidable  power  of  Macedonia,  and  not  having  as  yet 
any  desire  to  gain  territory  east  of  the  Adriatic,  took  nothing  for 
herself;  but  the  yEtolian  and  Achaean  leagues  each  received 
considerable  accessions  of  territory. 

II.   The  Wars  with  Antiochus  and  Perseus. 

The  Asiatic  War.  —  It  was  not  long  before  the  Romans 
B.C.  192.  were  drawn  into  another  war  in  defence  of  their  allies, 
the  republic  of  Rhodes  and  Eumenes,  the  new  king  of 
Pergamus,  against  Antiochus  of  Asia.  It  became  a  general  war,  in 
which  the  independent  states  of  Asia  Minor  and  Greece  were 
divided  against  one  another.     Philip  of  Macedonia,  true  to  the 


ANTIOCHUS    THE    GREAT. 


terms  of  peace,  aided  the  Romans,  and  so  did  the  Achseans  and 
the  king  of  Bithynia ;  while  the  ^toUans,  disappointed  with  their 
share  of  the  conquests  of  the  last  war,  espoused  the  party  of 
Antiochus.  At  their  invitation  Antiochus  even  crossed 
into  Greece,  but  was  defeated  at  Thermopylae,  and  forced 
to  retire  to  Asia  Minor.  Here  he  was  defeated  the  fol- 
lowing year  in  the  battle  of  Magnesia. 

Battle  of   Magnesia. — The  Roman   commander  in 

this  battle  was  Lucius  Scipio,  called  Asiaticus,  brother  of 

the  conqueror  of  Hannibal.     As  his  brother  accompanied  him  as 

aid  {legatus),  and  really  directed  the  operations  of  the  campaign, 


B.C.  191. 


B.C.  190. 


BATTLE    OF  MAGNESIA,  135 

the  merit  of  the  victory  is  ascribed  to  him.  In  the  battle  of 
Magnesia  the  weakness  of  the  phalanx  was  again  manifested.  The 
legions  could  do  nothing  against  it  by  direct  assault,  as  long  as  it 
remained  stationary,  or  moved  steadily  over  suitable  ground.  The 
Roman  commander,  therefore,  held  the  legions  back,  and  indeed 
they  took  no  part  in  the  battle  ;  but  the  cavalry  and  the  Hght-armed 
troops  assaulted  the  phalanx  with  showers  of  missiles,  which  broke 
up  the  solidity  of  their  array,  and  threw  them  into  confusion. 
After  this  they  were  speedily  routed. 

Terms  of  Peace.  — As  a  result  of  this  battle,  Antiochus  agreed 
to  surrender  all  of  Asia  Minor  north  of  Mt.  Taurus,  most  of  which 
was  added  to  the  dominions  of  Pergamus,  which  now  became  a 
powerful  kingdom.  Rhodes  received  the  territory  on  the  main- 
land as  far  north  as  the  river  Mseander,  and  from  this  time  for 
more  than  two  hundred  years  was  the  chief  maritime  power  of  the 
Eastern  Mediterranean ;  it  did  not  lose  its  independence  until 
the  time  of  the  Emperor  Claudius.  The  petty  kingdoms  upon  the 
Black  Sea  (p.  132)  continued  independent. 

Death  of  Hannibal.  —  In  this  war  Antiochus  had  been  assisted 
and  counselled  by  Hannibal,  who  had  taken  refuge  with  him  after 
his  exile  from  Carthage.  If  Hannibal  had  been  trusted  with 
the  entire  conduct  of  the  war,  instead  of  being  employed  in  only 
subordinate  operations,  the  result  might  have  been  different. 
When  peace  was  made,  Hannibal  had  nothing  to  hope  for.  Com- 
pelled to  flee  from  the  court  of  Antiochus,  he  took  refuge  with 
Prusias,  king  of  Bithynia,  and  escaped  surrender  to  the 
Romans  by  taking  poison.  He  was  sixty-seven  years  B.C.  183. 
old. 

Collapse  of  the  Empire  of  the  Seleucidae.  —  The  battle  of 
Magnesia  forms  a  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  Orient.  With  the 
loss  of  Asia  Minor  the  direct  relations  of  Antiochus  with  Europe 
were  at  an  end,  and  he  became  a  purely  Oriental  sovereign.  But 
the  power  of  his  empire  was  broken.  Not  long  after  his  death 
the  Parthian  king,  Mithridates  the  Great,  conquered  as 
far  west  as  the  Euphrates.     Even  before  this,  the  Jews,    B.C.  163. 


136 


THE    WARS  IN   THE  EAST. 


under  the  heroic  race  of  the  Maccabees,  had  achieved  virtual 
independence ;  and  now  the  mighty  empire  of  the  Seleucidae, 
which  had  once  stretched  from  the  ^Egean  to  the  Indus,  was 
reduced  to  the  dimensions  and  name  of  Kingdom  of  Syria. 

Wars  in  the  West.  —  In  the  fifty  years  which  followed,  the 
Romans  were  continually  engaged  in  petty  campaigns  to  strengthen 
their  authority  in  Spain  and  in  Northern  Italy,  the  country  of  the 
Gauls  and  Ligurians.  By  degrees  the  whole  of  Italy  up  to  the 
Alps  was  brought  firmly  under  their  power.  Spain  was  not  fully 
subdued  until  later.     At  the  same  time  a  series  of  contests  was 

carried  on  in  Illyricum,  where  at  last  the  foundations  of 
B.C.  167.     a  provincial  government  were  laid,  although  the  countries 

were  not  completely  subdued  and  organized  as  a  province 
until  a  long  time  after. 

The  Third  Macedonian  War.  —  Notwithstanding  the  Romans 
had  taken  nothing  for  themselves  in  the  Eastern  wars,  their  allies 
began  to  feel  jealous  and  suspicious  of 
their  growing  strength.  The  loyalty  of 
Philip  of  Macedon  began  to  waver,  and 

after  his  death  his  son  Perseus 
B.C.  179.  became  actively  hostile.  In  the 
B.C.  172.     war  that  followed  the  Rhodians 

remained  neutral,  but  unfriendly ; 
and  even  Eumenes  of  Pergamus  appeared 
estranged.     This  Third  Macedonian  War 

was  ended  by  the  battle  of  Pydna, 
B.C.  168.    in  which  the  Romans  were  commanded  by  Lucius  ^mi- 

lius  Paulus,  son  of  the  one  who  was  killed  at  Cannae,  a 
man  now  advanced  in  years,  but  of  the  best  Roman  type,  indomit- 
able and  active,  and  of  unblemished  integrity.  Paulus,  bareheaded 
and  lightly  armed,  was  everywhere  present,  directing  and  inspiring 
his  troops.  Here,  as  at  Cynoscephalae  and  Magnesia,  the  phalanx 
showed  its  weakness.  It  lost  its  compactness  on  the  uneven 
ground,  and  was  broken  to  pieces  by  the  assaults  of  the  Roman 
cohorts. 


PERSEUS. 


OVERTHROW   OF  MACEDONIA. 


137 


The  Kingdom  of  Macedonia  overthrown.  —  Even  now,  in 
spite  of  the  growing  demoralization  of  the  Roman  people,  they 
still  refrained  from  adding  to  their  own  dominions.  Perseus  was 
carried  a  prisoner  to  Rome,  where  he  graced  the  triumphal  pro- 
cession of  ^milius  Paulus.  His  kingdom  ceased  to  exist ;  and 
its  territories  were  divided  into  four  republics,  which  for  about 
twenty  years  enjoyed  a  show  of  independence  under  the  protection 
of  Rome. 


THE    SO-CALLED     DYING     GLADIATOR. 


In  reality  a  wounded  Gaul:   a  work  of  Pergamene  art,  showing  the 
torques  about  the  neck  (p.  78). 


138  SUPREMACY   OF  ROME. 


CHAPTER    XL 

SUPREMACY   OF   ROME. 

'  The  New  Nobility,  — The  contest  between  the  patricians  and 
plebeians  —  that  is,  between  the  original  body  of  citizens  and  the 
new  citizens  —  had  now  been  at  an  end  for  more  than  a  hundred 
years;  and  the  new  nobihty  (p.  65),  whose  rights  were  derived 
from  the  holding  of  office,  was  composed  indifferently  of  the  two 
orders.  Scipio,  Fabius  Maximus,  and  Flamininus  were  patricians  ; 
Regulus,  Catiilus,  and  Marcellus,  plebeians.  But  this  new  nobihty 
had  become  an  aristocracy,  almost  as  close  and  exclusive  as  the  old 
patriciate.  It  rested,  to  be  sure,  upon  election  by  the  people  to 
a  high  magistracy ;  but  the  elections  were  very  greatly  controlled 
by  the  presiding  magistrate ;  and  the  magistrates,  even  the  trib- 
unes, were  now  mere  agents  of  the  Senate,  while  the  Senate  in 
its  turn  consisted  chiefly  of  those  who  had  held  magistracies. 
Thus  the  nobility  controlled  the  elections,  and  seldom  did  a  "  new 
man  "  succeed  in  raising  himself  to  any  of  the  higher  offices  in 
the  state. 

The  New  Contests.  — In  this  condition  of  things  it  was  natural 
that  a  new  party  antagonism  should  arise  between  the  nobility, 
represented  by  the  Senate,  and  the  members  of  famihes  which  had 
not  yet  arrived  at  nobility.  We  see  the  beginning  of  this  antago- 
nism in  the  early  years  of  the  Second  Punic  War,  when  Flaminius 
and  Varro  were  elected  as  consuls  against  the  opposition  of  the 
Senate  and  in  the  interests  of  a  pohcy  opposed  to  that  of  the 
Senate.  The  disasters  at  Trasimenus  and  Cannae  discredited  this 
party,  and  the  still  active  spirit  of  patriotism  maintained  union  of 
action  as  long  as  the  danger  lasted.  Now  that  the  danger  was 
over,  and  the  republic  entered  upon  its  great  career  of  prosperity 


SCIPIO  AND    CATO.  139 

and  glory,  party  spirit  began  to  show  itself  again,  and  reached  a 
pitch  of  unscrupulous  violence  which  at  last  tore  the  republic  in 
pieces. 

Scipio.  — The  leading  representative  of  the  nobility  in  its  best 
estate  was  Scipio  Africanus  (b.c.  234-183),  one  of  the  few  men 
of  genius  whom  the  repubUc  produced,  the  one  to  whom  was  due 
the  successful  conduct  of  the  wars  against  Hannibal  and  Antiochus. 
He  was  a  man  of  magnanimous  temper,  honorable  in  his  deahngs, 
and  temperate  in  his  life,  but  proud  in  the  consciousness  of 
integrity  and  the  intuitions  of  genius.  In  public  affairs  he  favored 
the  policy  of  limiting  the  empire  to  its  natural  boundaries,  Italy 
and  the  neighboring  coasts  and  islands,  leaving  the  more  distant 
lands  independent,  but  under  the  leadership  of  Rome. 

Cato.  —  The  most  conspicuous  leader  of  the  opposition  was 
Marcus  Porcius  Cato  (b.c.  232-147),  better  known  as  Cato  the 
Censor,  for  the  severity  with  which  he  exercised  the  func- 
tions of  this  office.  Cato  was  a  peasant  by  birth,  and  his  B.C.  184. 
Sabine  farm  was  near  that  of  the  great  peasant-statesman 
of  a  century  before,  Manius  Curius ;  and  he  took  him  for  his  type. 
But  while  he  resembled  his  model  in  personal  integrity,  energy, 
and  ability  in  war  and  statesmanship,  adding  to  these  a  shrewdness 
and  homely  wit  which  distinguish  him  among  all  Romans,  he  was 
devoid  of  generosity  and  nobility  of  character.  For  nearly  half  a 
century  he  was  the  leading  poHtician  of  Rome ;  and  it  is  during 
these  fifty  years  that  the  changed  character  of  the  Romans,  the 
predominance  of  low  and  self-seeking  motives,  both  in  public  and 
private  life,  becomes  apparent.  Cato  contended  vigorously  against 
these  tendencies ;  but  he  fought  against  symptoms  rather  than 
against  the  disease  itself,  and  the  indirect  influence  of  his  charac- 
ter was  to  emphasize  more  and  more  the  selfish  and  ungenerous 
features  of  Roman  policy.  In  opposition  to  the  policy  of  Scipio, 
he  favored  the  subjugation  of  foreign  states  and  the  extension  of 
the  mischievous  provincial  system  —  the  chief  cause  of  Roman 
deterioration ;  and  his  last  public  act  was  to  hound  on  his  country- 
men to  the  destruction  of  Carthage. 


140  SUPREMACY  OF  ROME. 

Exile  of  Scipio.  — This  spirit  of  faction  found  its  first 
B.C.  187.     exi)ression  in  a  charge  brought  against  the  two  Scipios 

of  misappropriating  the  public  funds,  in  faiHng  to  account 
for  the  treasures  gained  in  the  war  against  Antiochus.  Of  the 
facts. of  the  case  we  know  very  little.  Africanus  proudly  refused 
to  render  an  account  (which  he  was  under  no  legal  obhgation  to 
do),  tore  the  papers  in  pieces  in  the  presence  of  the  people,  and, 
reminding  them  that  it  was  the  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  Zama, 
invited  them  to  follow  him  to  the  Capitol,  and  offer  thanks  to  the 
gods.  He  then  withdrew  to  his  estate  at  Liternum,  where  he  died 
four  years  later,  forbidding  his  body  to  be  taken  to  his  native  city 
for  burial.  The  condemnation  of  Asiaticus  was  prevented  by  the 
intercession  of  the  tribune  Gracchus,  a  personal  enemy. 

Greek  Influence.  —  It  was  at  this  period  of  the  earUest  close 
connection  between  Rome  and  Greece  that  the  Romans  first  felt 
strongly  the  charm  of  Greek  art  and  literature  and  the  power  of 
Greek  speculation.  As  was  natural,  it  was  among  the  nobles,  men 
like  Scipio  and  Flamininus,  that  this  influence  was  most  strongly 
felt ;  and  we  can  well  believe  that  men  of  their  type  brought  home 
with  them  what  was  best  and  most  ennobling  of  Grecian  creations. 
But  it  was  not  so  with  all.  The  Greeks  were  not  what  they  had 
once  been ;  and  their  art,  literature,  and  philosophy  at  this  age 
possessed  no  elevating  or  ennobling  power,  but  were  positive 
sources  of  corruption.  Men  like  Cato,  parUy  from  narrow  preju- 
dice, partly  from  a  clear  vision  of  the  dangers,  set  themselves  against 

the  fashionable  Greek  culture  of  the  day  :  of  course  with- 
B.O.  184.     out  effect.     Their  opposition  was  speedily  justified  by  the 

discovery  of  gross  indecencies  and  crimes  connected 
with  the  secret  worship  of  Bacchus,  a  degradation  of  the  religious 
sentiment  even  below  the  standard  of  the  noisy  and  orgiastic  rites 
of  the  Great  Mother  (p.  129).  An  inquiry  was  set  on  foot  by  the 
Senate,  numerous  persons  were  punished,  and  severe  laws  were 
passed ;  but  without  much  effect,  for  the  cause  of  the  evil  was  in 
the  growing  debasement  of  character. 

The  Roman  Comedy.  —  One  phase  of  this  Greek  influence  has 


LITERATURE.  141 

left  a  permanent  record  in  works  of  literature,  —  the  earliest  works 
of  Roman  literature  which  we  possess  in  any  completeness.  The 
Romans  displayed  httle  originality  or  creative  power;  but  they 
attained  great  success  in  translating  from  the  Greek,  and  these 
translations  from  the  Greek  comedians  are  partly  preserved.  The 
principal  Roman  comedian  of  this  period  was  Plautus  (b.c.  254- 
184),  twenty  of  whose  plays,  free  translations  from  Menander  and 
other  Greeks,  are  extant.  These  comedies  present  a  picture  of 
life  which  is  neither  Crreek  nor  Roman,  but  a  mixture  of  the 
two,  lively  and  graphic,  full  of  fun,  sometimes  gross.  As  a  treas- 
ure of  pure  Latinity  these  plays  of  Plautus  are  invaluable.  A 
generation  later  came  Terence  (b.c.  195-159),  six  of  whose 
plays  are  preserved.  These  too  are  translated  from  the  Greek, 
and  they  no  doubt  present  the  elegance  and  geniality  of  the 
original  more  truthfully  than  the  coarse  and  rollicking  plays  of 
Plautus. 

Cato's  Treatise  upon  Agriculture. — Another  work  which  has 
come  down  to  us  entire  from  this  period  deserves  special  mention, 
both  as  the  earliest  specimen  of  Latin  prose,  as  the  composition 
of  a  very  distinguished  man,  and  as  a  work  very  characteristic  of 
the  Roman  genius.  This  is  Cato's  treatise  upon  agriculture ;  he 
composed  a  number  of  other  works,  especially  the  Origines,  upon 
early  Roman  history,  but  this  is  the  only  one  extant.  As  we  have 
seen  (p.  100),  agriculture  was  held  in  great  honor  among  the 
Romans.  A  treatise  upon  this  subject  by  the  Carthaginian  Mago 
had  been  translated  into  Latin  by  order  of  the  Senate.  Cato's 
work  upon  agriculture  is  a  short  and  dry  treatise,  of  no  literary 
merit,  and  so  purely  technical  in  its  details  that  its  value  to  us  is 
chiefly  in  indicating  the  bent  of  the  Roman  mind  at  this  period 
and  the  general  character  of  Roman  industry. 

The  Basilica  Porcia.  — The  construction  of  a  new  court-house 
by  Cato  was  an  important  event  in  the  architectural  history  of 
Rome.  The  law-courts  had  hitherto  been  held  upon  the  Forum, 
wherever  the  praetor  saw  fit  to  set  up  his  tribunal.  But  the 
Forum  was  now  becoming  crowded,  and  the  business  of  the  courts 


142  SUPREMACY  OF  ROME. 

was  liable  to  be  interrupted  by  bad  weather  or  out-door 
B.C.  184.  noises.  Cato  therefore,  in  his  censorship,  bought  land 
upon  the  comitium,  between  the  Senate-house  and  the 
Capitoline,  and  on  it  erected  a  hall  for  the  courts  of  justice,  called 
Basilica  Porcia.  The  style  of  building  was  that  of  a  long  hall 
divided  lengthwise  by  two  rows  of  columns.^  Several  other  ba- 
silicas were  in  the  course  of  time  erected  upon  the  unoccupied 
sides  of  the  Forum  and  elsewhere,  and  this  form  of  building  was 
afterwards  adopted  for  the  Christian  churches. 

Wars  with.  Greece  and  Africa.  —  By  the  three  great  wars  in 
the  East,  Rome  had  gained  prestige  and  wealth,  but  no  increase 
of  territory.  But  the  time  had  now  come  when  she  was  to  seize 
into  her  hands  the  dominion  over  the  whole  IVIediterranean.  The 
capture  and  destruction  of  two  cities  in  the  same 
B.C.  146.  year,  Carthage  and  Corinth,  mark  the  sudden  advance 
of  the  great  republic  to  the  summit  of  power. 

Province  of  Macedonia.  —  The  order  of  things  established  in 
Macedonia  after  the  batde  of  Pydna  (p.  136)  did  not  long  continue. 
An  impostor,  calling  himself  Philip,  son  of  Perseus,  excited  an 
insurrection  which  was  easily  suppressed ;  and  Macedonia,  in  the 
year  146,  was  converted  into  a  Roman  province.  In  the  same 
year  a  war,  into  which  the  Achaean  cities  had  rashly  entered,  was 
brought  to  an  end  by  the  consul  Lucius  Mummius.  The  war  had 
been  caused  in  part  by  insults  offered  to  Roman  ambassadors  in 
Corinth ;  and  now  the  Senate  showed  how  far  it  had  degenerated 
from  the  ancient  Roman  character,  by  ordering  the  complete 
destruction  of  this  city,  the  most  populous  in  Greece,  and  the 
seat  of  the  most  flourishing  commerce.  An  enormous  quantity 
of  works  of  art  were  carried  to  Rome.  The  city  ceased  to  exist, 
and  its  commercial  preponderance  was  transferred  to  the  Islands 
of  Rhodes  and  Delos.  The  states  and  cities  of  Greece  were  left 
to  govern  themselves,  but  were  required  to  pay  an  annual  tribute, 

1  It  is  seen  in  the  oldest  churches  of  Rome,  such  as  that  of  Santa  Maria 
Maggiore;  the  foundations  of  the  Basilica  Juha,  huilt  by  JuUus  and  Augustus 
Caesar  on  the  south  side  of  the  P^orum,  are  well  preserved. 


THIRD  FUNIC    WAR.  143 

and  were   placed   under   the    administration  of  the  governor  of 
Macedonia.^ 

Third  Punic  War.  —  In  the  same  year  as  the  destruction  of 
Corinth,  the  Senate  committed  an  even  greater  crime  in  the  de- 
struction of  the  ancient  rival  of  Rome,  Carthage.  The  prosperity 
and  steadily  increasing  wealth  of  Carthage  excited  the  jealousy 
and  hatred  of  a  party  at  Rome,  of  which  the  aged  Cato  was  the 
leader ;  his  hatred  of  Carthage  was  so  bitter  that  he  ended  every 
speech,  on  whatever  subject,  with  the  words,  "It  is  my  judgment 
that  Carthage  should  be  blotted  out."^  With  the  connivance  of 
the  Roman  government,  the  Numidian  king,  Masinissa,  now  nearly 
ninety  years  old,  but  as  active  and  energetic  as  a  young  man, 
picked  a  quarrel  with  Carthage ;  and  in  the  war  that 
followed  he  gained  a  decided  victory.  B.C.  152. 

Bad  Faith  of  the  Romans.  —  War  with  an  ally  of 
Rome  was  a  breach  of  the  treaty  of  peace,  and  the  Romans  did 
not  hesitate  to  seize  upon  this  pretext  for  the  destruction  of  their 
rival.  All  the  old  spirit  of  magnanimity  and  good  faith  had  dis- 
appeared from  the  public  policy  of  Rome,  and  nothing  in  the 
whole  course  of  its  history  displays  a  more  cold-blooded  brutality 
than  its  treatment  of  Carthage  now.  W^ar  was  de- 
clared ;  but  the  Carthaginians,  weakened  and  humbled,  b.O,  149. 
were  anxious  to  avert  war  by  any  concession.  They 
were  ordered  first  to  give  three  hundred  hostages,  young  men  of 
their  noblest  families.  When  these  had  been  delivered,  they  were 
commanded  further  to  give  over  all  their  engines  and  munitions 
of  war.  These  were  brought  to  Utica,  the  Roman  headquarters, 
and  delivered,  —  more  than  200,000  sets  of  armor,  2000  war- 
engines,  and  an  enormous  amount  of  stores.  Then  they  were 
informed  that  their  city  must  be  destroyed  :  their  liberties  and 
their  municipal  independence  were  preserved  to  them,  they  were 
to  continue  in  possession  of  their  territory,  and  they  might  build 

1  In  the  time  of  Augustus   Greece  was   separated   from    Macedonia,  and 
organized  as  an  independent  province  by  the  name  of  Achaia. 

2  "  Censeo  Karthaginem  esse  delendam.^'' 


144  SUPREMACY  OF  ROME. 

a  new  city,  but  it  must  be  at  least  ten  miles  from  the  sea.     There 
must  be  no  more  commercial  rivalry. 

Siege  of  Carthage. — This  announcement  filled  the  people  of 
Carthage  with  indignation  and  fury.  They  laid  aside  all  dissen- 
sions, and  united  in  the  defence  of  their  country.  Every  forge 
and  workshop  was  busy  night  and  day.  The  women  cut  off  their 
hair  for  bow-strings,  the  public  buildings  were  stripped  of  timber 
and  metal  for  material,  and  when,  after  a  month's  delay,  the  Ro- 
mans appeared  before  the  walls,  they  were  astonished  to  find  the 
city  in  a  complete  state  of  defence. 

Scipio  iEmilianus.  —  The  Carthaginians,  excited  to  a  fiery 
energy,  were  more  than  a  match  for  their  assailants ;  and  the  siege 

was  protracted  for  three  years.  It  was  not  until  the 
B.C.  147.    young  Scipio  took  command  that  the  contest  began  to 

turn  in  favor  of  the  Romans.  Publius  CorneHus  Scipio 
was  the  son  of  yEmilius  Paulus,  the  victor  at  Pydna,  but  had  been 
adopted  by  the  son  of  the  elder  Africanus,  whose  name  he  took. 
He  is  known  by  the  surname  ^milianus,  denoting  his  birth ;  also 
as  Africanus,  from  his  conquest  of  Africa.  He  was  not  a  man  of 
the  genius  of  the  elder  Africanus ;  but  by  his  uprightness  of  char- 
acter, well-balanced  powers,  and  moderation  of  temper,  he  deserves 
to  be  regarded  as  the  leading  Roman  of  his  time.  Like  others  of 
his  family,  he  was  not  in  sympathy  with  the  vindictive  spirit  of 
Cato,  but  would  have  been  glad  to  preserve  Carthage  as  a  worthy 
rival  of  Rome.  In  the  spirit  of  an  obedient  citizen,  he  carried  out 
a  policy  of  destruction  which  he  did  not  approve.  Knowing  that 
Scipio  alone  was  capable  of  carrying  the  war  to  a  successful  issue, 

the  Roman  people,  in  spite  of  his  being  under  the  legal 
B.C.  147.    age,  elected  him  to  the  consulship,  and  gave  him  sole 

command  in  Africa. 
Destruction  of  Carthage.  —  Scipio  pushed  the  siege  with  energy 
and  consummate   skill.     First,  he   closed  the  harbor  by  a  mole 
ninety-six  feet  wide ;  and  when  the  Carthaginians  cut  through  a 

new  passage,  he  invested  the  city  completely  by  new 
B.C.  146.    earthworks   on   the   land   side.      The   next   spring   he 


DESTRUCTION   OF  CARTHAGE.  145 

proceeded  to  the  assault.  The  Romans  fought  their  way 
into  the  city ;  but,  even  when  they  were  within  the  walls,  it  took 
six  days  to  fight  their  way  through  the  streets  to  the  foot  of  the 
citadel.  Less  than  60,000  out  of  a  population  of  half  a  million 
were  now  left  to  surrender.  The  lives  of  all  but  Roman  deserters 
was  spared ;  but  the  city,  by  command  of  the  Senate,  was  burned. 
As  Scipio  gazed  upon  the  fire  which  raged  for  seventeen  days  — 
the  work  of  his  own  hands,  but  which  he  detested  —  he  thought  to 
himself  that  such  might  one  day  be  the  fate  of  his  own  city ;  and 
he  repeated  thoughtfully  the  lines  of  Homer  : 

"  Yet  come  it  will,  the  day  decreed  by  fate, 
The  day  when  thou,  imperial  Troy,  must  bend, 
And  see  thy  warriors  fall,  thy  glories  end."  ^ 

Colony  of  Carthage.  —  The  plough  was  passed  through  the 
soil,  and  the  spot  was  solemnly  cursed.  Nevertheless  so  favor- 
able a  situation  for  trade  did  not  long  remain  deserted. 
A  few  years  later  Gains  Gracchus  sent  a  colony  to  the  B.C.  122. 
spot,  which  now  received  the  name  Junonia.  It  did  not 
prosper  at  first,  but  was  renewed  by  Augustus,  who  sent  there 
three  thousand  new  colonists ;  and  under  the  empire  it  again  be- 
came a  seat  of  commerce  and  civihzation.  In  the  later  empire 
Carthage  was  once  more  the  chief  city  of  Africa. 

The  Roman  Empire.  —  The  dominion  of  Rome  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean was  now  complete.  Besides  the  territory  of  Carthage,  its 
empire  embraced  the  entire  peninsulas  of  Greece,  Italy,  and 
Spain.  There  remained  independent  upon  the  coasts  of  the 
Mediterranean  (besides  the  barbarous  tribes  of  Africa,  Gaul, 
Thrace,  and  Asia  Minor),  only  the  kingdoms  of  Egypt,  Syria  and 
Pergamus,  the  republic  of  Rhodes,  and  in  the  West  the  republic  of 
Massilia  (JMaiseilles).  This  was  a  Greek  colony  of  the  best  type, 
worthy  to  be  compared  with  Rhodes,  a  seat  of  wealth  and  culture, 
ruling  over  a  large  tract  of  territory  on  both  sides  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Rhone.  But  all  these  states,  even  if  they  could  have  been 
1  Iliad,  vi.  448. 


146 


SUPREMACY   OF  ROME. 


united,  were  no  match  for  the  power  of  Rome.  East  of  Syria,  the 
Parthian  empire  had  now  pushed  its  conquests  to  the  Euphrates 
and  the  Arabian  Desert,  and  was  preparing  to  take  its  historical 
place  as  rival  empire  to  that  of  Rome. 

Province  of  Asia.  —A  few  years  after  the  conquest  of  Greece 
and  Carthage,  Attalus  III.,  the  last  king  of  Pergamus, 
B.C.  133.  died,  by  his  will  bequeathing  his  dominions  to  the 
Roman  people.  As  these  dominions  comprised  all  the 
western  portion  of  Asia  Minor,  including  the  most  fertile  and 
populous  regions  of  that  peninsula,  together  with  the  great  Greek 
cities  upon  the  coast,  Smyrna,  Ephesus,  Miletus,  and  others,  this 
was  a  step  of  the  first  importance  in  building  up  the  empire  of  the 
Roman  republic. 


SUOVETAURILIA. 


PERIOD    OF   CIVIL    DISSENSIONS. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

THE   GRACCHI. 
I.   The  Social  and  Economical  Condition  of  Italy. 

Decay  of  Republicanism.  —  It  is  a  sign  of  the  decay  of  genuine 
republicanism  in  Rome,  and  the  approach  of  autocratic  govern- 
ment, that  from  this  time  on  its  history  centres  about  the  names 
of  individuals.  Scipio  ^milianus  was  the  last  great  Roman  who 
embodied  the  spirit  and  the  traditions  of  the  republic ;  and  he 
cannot  be  taken  as  a  type  of  the  corrupt  and  greedy  age  in  which 
he  lived.  The  century  which  still  remained  of  the  Hfe  of  the  re- 
public can  be  best  related  in  connection  with  six  names,  with 
which  we  may  successively  associate  the  events  of  their  times. 
These  are :  the  Gracchi,  Marius,  Sulla,  Pompey,  Caesar,  and 
Octavian. 

Causes  of  Decay.  —  During  the  half  century  that  had  passed 
since  the  overthrow  of  Hannibal  at  Zama,  there  had  been  a  rapid 
deterioration  of  the  Roman  people,  and  a  rapid  growth  of  mis- 
government  and  social  injustice.  From  these  causes  there  now 
broke  out  civil  dissensions  of  the  most  bitter  character,  speedily 
resulting  in  bloodshed,  riot,  civil  war,  and  at  last  the  destruction 
of  the  republic  itself.  The  causes  of  these  evils  may  be  described 
under  three  heads,  —  the  government  of  the  provinces,  the  gov- 
ernment of  Italy,  and  the  occupation  of  the  land. 

I.  The  Government  of  the  Provinces.  —  It  has  been  already 
shown  that  the  Roman  provincial  system  was  a  fruitful  cause  of 
mischief.  It  could  not,  in  the  nature  of  things,  be  otherwise. 
Power,  joined  with  effective  responsibility,  sobers  its  possessor. 


148  THE    GRACCHI. 

and  makes  him  cautious  and  conservative  ;  but  irresponsible  power 
always  produces  recklessness  and  corruption.  Now  the  Roman 
people  were  the  irresponsible  masters  of  the  provinces,  and  they 
vested  their  governors  with  a  practically  irresponsible  authority 
over  the  persons  and  property  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  provinces. 
The  provinces  were  looked  upon  only  as  mines,  from  which  the 
Romans  should  derive  profit.  The  revenues  derived  from  them 
not  only  made  it  possible  to  relieve  the  Roman  people  from  taxa- 
tion, but  even  to  support  them  in  idleness.  From  the  time  of 
the  Second  Macedonian  War  no  tribute,  or  land-tax,  was  levied 
upon  Roman  citizens  until  the  very  close  of  the  republic ;  and 
distributions  of  corn,  either  gratuitous  or  at  a  reduced  rate,  be- 
came more  and  more  common.  This  was  the  lawful  revenue 
of  the  state,  even  if  gained  by  extortion  and  used  for  corruption  ; 
but  besides  this  the  governors  made  it  their  object,  during  their 
terms  of  office,  to  enrich  themselves  with  unlawful  plunder. 

Abuses  of  Administration.  —  For  these  abuses  the  provincials 
had  no  redress,  because  cruelties  and  extortions  exercised  upon 
them  were  not  regarded  as  crimes  by  the  Roman  law,  while  their 
own  courts  of  justice  had  no  authority  over  their  foreign  rulers. 
Lucius  Flamininus,  the  brother  of  the  victor  at  Cynoscephalse,  when 
commanding  an  army  in  Cisalpine  Gaul,  caused  a  noble  Gaul,  a 
fugitive  in  his  camp,  to  be  beheaded,  not  for  any  offence,  but  to 
gratify  with  the  spectacle  one  of  his  favorites,  who,  to  follow  him 
to  the  camp,  had  been  obliged  to  miss  the  gladiatorial  shows. 
Flamininus   was   removed    from   the   Senate   by  the  censors  for 

immorality,  but  the  courts  had  no  power  to  punish  him. 
B.C.  149.        Establishment  of  the  Court  of  Repetundae.  —  At  last 

the  abuses  of  administration  became  unbearable,  and  at 
the  time  of  the  Third  Punic  War  a  special  court  was  organized 
in  Rome  for  the  trial  of  provincial  governors  for  oppression  and 
extortion.  This  was  called  the  cowxX  oi  Repetundae  (trial  for  ex- 
tortion) .  Something  was  accomplished  by  this  ;  but  as  the  judges 
of  the  court  were  taken  from  the  Senate,  and  the  provincial  gov- 
ernors were  also  members  of  the  Senate,  —  that  is,  of  the  ruhng 


CONDITION  OF  ITAIY.  149 

nobility,  —  class  interests  stood,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  way  of 
any  effective  administration  of  justice. 

II.  The  Government  of  Italy. — The  government  of  Italy  was  no 
better,  except  that  the  Italian  states  were  not  placed  under  Roman 
governors,  and  were  not  called  upon  for  contributions  of  money ; 
but  the  arrogance  and  greediness  of  Roman  officials  were  seen 
everywhere,  and  there  was  no  effective  machinery  for  bringing 
them  within  reach  of  the  law.  On  one  occasion,  when  the  consul 
with  his  wife  was  on  a  visit  at  Teanum,  a  free  town  of  Campania, 
the  wife  took  a  whim  to  bathe  in  the  men's  baths,  which  were  con- 
sequently prepared  for  her  use.  But  as  she  complained  that  she 
was  kept  waiting  over  long,  and  that  the  bath  was  not  sufficiently 
clean,  the  magistrate  of  the  town,  its  leading  citizen,  was  stripped 
and  flogged  in  the  market-place.  A  young  official,  passing  in  a 
litter  through  the  territory  of  Venusia,  —  a  Latin  colony,  and  there- 
fore a  free  town,  —  was  met  by  a  herdsman,  who  asked  jestingly 
whether  they  were  carrying  a  corpse.  The  young  man,  inflamed 
at  the  insult,  ordered  the  litter  to  stop ;  and  the  unfortunate 
herdsman  was  flogged  to  death.  These  two  incidents,  narrated 
in  a  speech  of  Gains  Gracchus,  show  the  temper  in  which  Italy 
was  now  governed,  and  enable  us  to  understand  how  it  was 
that  the  loyalty  which  had  steadfastly  resisted  Hannibal  was  by 
degrees  changed  into  hostility.  The  principal  Latin  colony, 
Fregellae,  was  driven  at  length  to  revolt,  was  captured  by 
treachery,  deprived  of  municipal  rights,  and  reduced  to  B.C.  125. 
the  rank  of  a  village. 

III.  The  Land  Question.  —  During  the  period  just  passed  a 
great  change  had  taken  place  in  the  social  condition  of  the  Italian 
people.  Before  the  wars  with  Carthage  Italy  was  a  country  of 
small  peasants,  simple,  industrious,  hving  by  the  labor  of  their 
hands.  It  was  now  transformed  into  a  country  of  great  landed 
estates,  owned  by  rich  noblemen,  and  cultivated  by  slaves.  In 
the  mountain  regions,  especially  in  the  territories  of  the  allies, 
there  still  existed  a  peasantry  of  the  old  stamp  ;  and  the  municipal 
towns   were  the  seat  of  vigorous  self-government.      But  in  the 


ISO  THE    GRACCHI. 

Roman  domain  and  in  the  territories  of  many  of  the  aUied  cities 
the  rule  of  the  nobles  was  unrestricted,  and  all  independent  pro- 
prietorship was  being  rapidly  swallowed  up  in  their  plantations. 
The  change  is  well  illustrated  in  the  contrast  between  Cato,  the 
peasant  statesman  of  the  present  period,  and  Curius,  the  peasant 
statesman  of  the  century  before.  Curius  was  a  yeoman,  Cato  was 
a  planter.  He  owned  large  estates  of  land,  which  he  cultivated 
with  the  labor  of  hard-worked  slaves ;  and  when  his  slaves  were 
old  and  broken  down  with  toil,  he  remorselessly  sold  them  for 
what  they  would  bring,  that  he  might  not  be  burdened  with  the 
care  of  their  maintenance. 

Slavery  in  Italy.  —  A  new  type  of  slavery  had  come  into  exist- 
ence, and  a  new  system  of  agriculture.  In  the  old  days  the  slave, 
a  captive  from  some  Italian  nation,  of  the  same  race  as  his  owner, 
was  a  member  of  his  household,  and  worked  by  his  side  in  the 
fields.  There  was  no  large  market,  and  no  large  profits  were  ex- 
pected ;  but  every  household  earned  its  own  livelihood.  The 
greed  of  gain  had  now  seized  upon  all  classes.  When  the  peasants 
were  crowded  out  of  their  homesteads,  the  great  plantation  that  took 
the  place  of  these  was  cultivated  purely  for  the  profit  of  its  owner, 
and  with  little  care  for  the  interests  of  the  cultivators.  Slave  labor 
cost  the  planter  less  than  free  labor ;  his  slave  could  not  be  called 
away  for  military  service  as  a  hired  laborer  could ;  and  it  was  no 
concern  of  his  what  became  of  the  free  peasants  who  had  been 
superseded  by  slaves.  It  is  a  well-established  truth  that  free  labor 
cannot  exist  by  the  side  of  slave  labor,  any  more  than  good  money 
can  circulate  by  the  side  of  bad  ;  and  no  nation  has  illustrated  this 
truth  more  fully  than  the  Roman  republic. 

Causes  of  the  Change;  1.  War.  —  The  process  of  building  up 
great  estates  at  the  expense  of  the  small  freeholds  no  doubt  began 
very  early,  and  was  held  somewhat  in  check  by  the  Licinian  laws 
(p.  75),  which  regulated  the  amount  of  public  land  that  any  per- 
son could  occupy,  and  required  the  employment  of  a  certain  pro- 
portion of  free  labor.  The  rapid  economic  changes  and  rise  of 
prices  at  the  time  of  the  First  Punic  War  (p.  loi)  gave  a  fresh 


THE  LATIFUNDIA.  151 

impulse  to  the  movement,  and  inspired  a  spirit  of  reckless  specu- 
lation. But  the  change  must  have  been  greatly  hastened  by  the 
devastations  of  the  Second  Punic  War,  when  Hannibal  traversed 
the  lands  of  Central  Italy  year  after  year,  burning  and  destroying 
wherever  he  went.  Hannibal  did  not  destroy  the  power  of  Rome, 
as  he  expected;  but  he  did  her  a  vital  injury  in  annihilating 
the  peasantry,  and  reducing  great  districts  of  territory  to  a  condi- 
tion in  which  they  easily  fell  into  the  hands  of  capitalists  and 
speculators.  Within  a  very  few  years  after  the  close  of 
this  war  we  find  slave  revolts  in  Apulia,  showing  that  here  B.C.  185. 
the  prevalence  of  slave  labor  was  already  complete.  In 
135  there  was  a  formidable  insurrection  of  slaves  in  Sicily,  which 
lasted  until  132. 

2.  Force  and  Fraud.  —  It  was  not  merely  as  a  result  of  the  dev- 
astations of  war  that  the  peasant  freeholds  vanished.  There  were 
of  course  voluntary  sales,  the  small  farmer  not  being  able  to  com- 
pete with  his  wealthy  neighbor  in  the  present  speculative  system 
of  husbandry.  But  a  great  proportion  of  the  changes  were  wrought 
by  force  and  fraud.  In  the  secluded  parts  of  the  peninsula  it 
was  not  easy  for  a  peasant  to  hold  his  own  against  the  chicanery, 
and  even  the  positive  violence,  of  the  nobleman  who  wished  his 
land.  The  story  of  Naboth's  vineyard  was  repeated  again  and 
again  in  these  rural  communities ;  and  even  more  than  a  hundred 
years  later  Horace  describes,  in  glowing  language,  the  rapacity 
of  the  proprietor  who  tears  up  the  boundary  stones  of  his  neigh- 
bor, and  drives  from  their  home  the  husband  and  wife  and  squalid 
children,  carrying  with  them  the  images  of  their  household  gods.^ 

The  Public  Domain.  —  This  process  was  assisted  by  the  con- 
tinued occupation  of  the  pubHc  lands,  in  the  neglect  of  the 
restrictions  imposed  by  the  Licinian  legislation  (p.  75).  It 
is  true  a  large  part  of  the  conquered  territory  was  employed 
in  the  estabhshment  of  colonies,  both  Latin  and  Roman.     But 

1  quid  quod  usque  proximos'revellis  agri  terminos  et  ultra 
limites  clientium  salis  avariis?  pellitur  paternos 
in  sinu  ferens  deos  et  uxor  et  vir  sordidosque  natos.  —  Od.  ii.  18,  23. 


152  THE    GRACCHI. 

what  remained  became  the  prey  of  wealthy  nobles  or  of  capi- 
talists. In  the  Second  Punic  War  the  state  had  to  borrow  large 
sums  from  capitalists ;  and  when  they  pressed  for  their  pay,  there 
was  no  resource  but  to  mortgage  to  them  all  the  public 
B.C.  200.  lands  within  fifty  miles  of  Rome.^  Public  lands  which 
had  once  in  this  way  come  into  the  hands  of  private 
persons  were  not  hkely  ever  to  be  redeemed. 

The  Grazing  Industry.  —  It  soon  appeared  that  the  great 
estates  which  had  been  thus  built  up  could  be  more  profitably 
employed  in  grazing  than  in  agriculture.  A  single  slave  could 
guard  the  herds  and  flocks,  over  an  extent  of  land  which  had 
contained  many  homesteads  of  free  peasants.  Cato,  when  asked 
what  was  the  most  profitable  branch  of  industry,  answered, 
"Successful  cattle-raising."  What  next?  "  Moderately  success- 
ful cattle-raising."  What  next?  "Unsuccessful  cattle-raising."^ 
When  the  sole  object  was  pecuniary  profit,  it  was  easy  to  see 
that,  as  slave  labor  was  cheaper  than  free  labor,  so  a  few  slaves, 
engaged  in  herding  flocks,  were  more  profitable  than  a  large  num- 
ber engaged  in  cultivating  the  soil.  So  there  took  place  an  evic- 
tion of  householders,  a  levelling  of  cottages,  and  an  annihilation 
of  agriculture,  such  as,  for  the  same  objects,  took  place  in  England 
in  the  time  of  the  Tudors,  and,  for  the  sake  of  game,  in  Northern 
Scotland  during  the  present  century.  This  abandonment  of  agri- 
culture was  made  possible  by  the  foreign  conquests.  The  prov- 
inces were  required  to  contribute  corn  to  the  capital,  and  the 
Roman  people  were  able  to  live  upon  the  forced  tribute  of 
foreign  nations. 

The  City  Proletariat."  —  From  this  we  learn  what  became  of  the 
dispossessed  peasants.  Having  no  longer  any  home,  they  had 
nothing  to  do  but  to  throng  to  the  city,  where  they  helped  to  swell 

1  Livy,  xxxi.  13. 

2  Cic.  de  Off.  ii.  25,  89. 

2  The  term  p7'oletarius  (producer  of  children)  was  given  to  those  citizens 
who,  by  the  smallness  of  their  property  (under  1500  asses— %\^.(X))  were 
exempted  from  taxes,  and  served  among  the  light-armed  troops. 


THE   PUBLICANS.  153 

the  rapidly  increasing  throng  of  the  idle  and  worthless.  They 
lived  now,  not  upon  the  honest  labor  of  their  hands,  but  upon  the 
plunder  of  the  provinces.  It  was  the  provincial  system  which 
made  it  possible  to  turn  Italy  into  pastures  and  pleasure  grounds. 
From  the  time  of  the  Second  Punic  War  distributions  of  corn  to 
the  people,  either  gratuitously  or  at  reduced  rates,  became  more 
and  more  the  practice. 

The  Publicans.  —  The  proud  aristocracy  of  Rome  was,  there- V_y 
fore,  now  given  up  to  the  eager  pursuit  of  gain,  by  methods  which  "^ 
undermined  the  well-being  of  the  Italian  people.  By  the  side 
of  this  land-holding  aristocracy  there  had  grown  up  a  body  of 
rich  capitalists,  which  formed  a  second  aristocracy,  even  more 
sordid  than  the  first,  for  their  capital  was  not  employed  in  produc- 
tive labor,  but  in  speculation  and  financiering.  These  capitalists, 
uniting  in  joint  stock  companies,  and  called  public ani,  contracted 
for  the  construction  of  pubhc  works  and  the  collection  of  indirect 
revenues,  such  as  salt  works,  mines,  and  public  pastures.  This 
was  all  very  well ;  but  in  certain  of  the  provinces  the  system  of 
collecting  direct  taxes,  through  the  instrumentahty  of  these  com- 
panies was  adopted.  This  wasteful  and  oppressive  system  of 
"  farming  the  revenues,"  as  it  was  called,  was  in  use  in  France 
in  the  last  century,  and  was  a  leading  cause  of  the  French 
Revolution.  The  publicans  contracted  for  a  round  sum  to  be 
paid  into  the  treasury,  and  then  squeezed  out  of  the  people 
all  that  they  could,  putting  the  surplus  into  their  own  coffers; 
it  is  easy  then  to  understand  the  hatred  with  which  they  were 
regarded  by  the  people  of  Judea,  as  expressed  in  the  New 
Testament.  As  early  as  the  close  of  the  war  with 
Hannibal,  we  find  contractors  of  this  class  punished  for  b.O.  196. 
fraud ;  and  it  is  easy  to  see,  as  time  went  on,  that  the 
unfortunate  provincials  would  suffer  as  severely  from  the  greedy 
publicans  as  from  the  oppressive  governors. 


154  THE    GRACCHI. 

II.   Tiberius  Gracchus. 

The  Family  of  Gracchus.  — Tiberius  Sempronius  Gracchus  was 
a  young  man  of  a  noble  plebeian  family,  distinguished  for  ability, 

honor,  and  public  spirit.  His  father  had  been  governor 
B,C.  179.     of  Spain  for  two  years,  and  had  not  only  strengthened 

the  Roman  dominion  in  that  country,  but  had  gained 
the  entire  confidence  and  affection  of  the  natives  by  his  jus- 
tice and  humanity.  Before  this,  as  tribune,  he  had  defended  the 
two  Scipios  against  their  assailants  (p.  140),  and  had  afterwards 
married  Cornelia,  the  daughter  of  Scipio  Africanus,  the  well- 
known  "  mother  of  the  Gracchi."  Of  their  large  family  only  three 
grew  to  maturity,  two  sons,  Tiberius  and  Gains,  and  a  daughter, 
Sempronia,  who  was  married  to  her  cousin,  Scipio  ^milianus. 
She  was  unattractive  and  ill-tempered,  and  they  did  not  live 
happily  together. 

Wars  in  Spain.  —  The  young  Tiberius  had  served  in  the  armies 
of  Spain,  a  country  which,  by  the  turbulence  of  its  natives  and 
the  atrocious  misrule  of  its  Roman  governors,  was  a  seat  of  almost 
constant  warfare.  There  had  been  a  formidable  uprising  among 
the  Lusitanians  (in  modern  Portugal)  headed  by  Viriathus,  a  man 

of  heroic  character,  who  maintained  himself  against  the 
B.C.  139.     power  of  Rome  for  eight  years,  until  he  was  assassinated. 

Before  the  war  with  Viriathus  was  at  an  end  the  city  of 

Numantia  revolted,  and  withstood  a  siege  of  ten  years, 
B.C.  133.    when  it  was  at  last  reduced  by  Scipio  ^milianus,  the 

conqueror  of  Carthage.  It  was  at  the  siege  of  Numantia 
that  Tiberius  Gracchus,  then  quaestor,  first  distinguished  himself, 
and  showed  that  he  possessed  his  father's  high  qualities. 

Plans  of  Gracchus.  —  On  his  return  to  Rome  Gracchus  had 
occasion  to  pass  through  Etruria,  and  was  impressed  by  the  con- 
dition of  things  described  in  the  last  section,  —  the  disappearance 
or  impoverishment  of  the  peasantry,  the  growth  of  enormous 
estates,  and  the  prevalence  of  slave  labor.  It  was  plain  to  him, 
as  to  all  clear-sighted  Romans,  that  if  this  went  on  the  republic 


REFORMS    OF   TIBERIUS    GRACCHUS.  155 

could  not  endure ;  but  where  others  were  content  to  mourn  the 
degeneracy  of  the  times,  Gracchus  determined  to  seek  a  remedy. 
It  favored  his  purposes  that  he  was  a  plebeian,  for  he  was  thus  able 
to  hold  the  office  of  tribune,  an  office  which  made  him  the  especial 
representative  of  the  people,  and  which  more  than  any  other  put 
it  in  his  power  to  embody  his  ideas  in  legislation.  He  was  elected 
tribune  for  the  year  133. 

The  Agrarian  Law.  —  It  appeared  to  Gracchus  that  the  public 
lands  which  were  in  the  occupation  of  individuals  might  be  made 
the  agency  for  creating  anew  an  ItaHan  peasantry ;  in  this  reviv- 
ing the  policy  of  Spurius  Cassius  (p.  48).  The  Licinian  law, 
which  limited  the  amount  of  these  lands  to  be  occupied  by  any 
individual  (p.  75),  had  fallen  into  oblivion;  and  the  great  estates 
which  had  been  built  up  were  largely  composed  of  lands  of  this 
class,  which  were  legally  the  property  of  the  state.  It  was  the  plan 
of  Gracchus  to  enforce  this  law,  reduce  the  occupations  to  the 
lawful  amount,  and  make  use  of  the  public  lands  thus  resumed  in 
providing  households  for  landless  citizens.  In  order,  however, 
that  his  measure  might  not  bear  too  hard  upon  those  who  had 
present  possession  of  the  lands,  he  provided  that  each  of  these 
might  retain,  in  addition  to  the  five  hundred  jugera  permitted  by 
the  earlier  law,  two  hundred  and  fifty  for  each  son — not,  however, 
to  exceed  one  thousand  in  all.  The  lands  thus  resumed  were  to 
be  divided  into  lots  of  thirty  jugera  ( 1 5  acres) ,  and  granted  to 
both  citizens  and  ItaHans  in  perpetual  lease  ;  it  was  feared  that  if 
they  could  be  sold,  they  would  soon  be  swallowed  up  in  the  great 
plantations,  as  the  original  homesteads  had  been. 

The  Tribunate.  —  This  project  of  law  came  near  being  thwarted 
by  one  of  the  most  absurd  and  mischievous  features  of  the  Roman 
constitution.  The  tribunes,  ten  in  number,  were  originally  ap- 
pointed in  order  to  protect  individual  citizens  against  magistrates 
who  were  disposed  to  abuse  their  enormous  power  (p.  43).  For  this 
purpose  each  of  the  ten  was  enabled,  by  his  simple  intervention,  to 
block  the  action  of  any  magistrate,  even  of  his  colleague.  This 
had  been  a  salutary  power  during  the  contest  of  the  orders ;  but 


156  THE    a  R  AC  CHI. 

now  that  the  tribunes  had  ceased  to  be  the  representatives  of  an 
order,  and  were,  hke  the  rest  of  the  magistrates,  regular  organs 
of  the  government  and  agents  of  the  Senate,  —  the  requirement 
of  plebeian  birth  having  now  no  real  meaning  or  object,  —  such  a 
power  as  this  was  a  mere  instrument  of  anarchy,  enabling  a  single 
factious  member  of  the  board  to  block  the  wheels  of  government. 
Passage  of  the  Law.  —  On  this  occasion  Marcus  Octavius,  a 
\>^colleague  and  old  friend  of  Gracchus,  interposed  his  veto,  and 
thus  brought  the  plan  of  legislation  to  nought.  Gracchus  em- 
ployed all  his  powers  of  persuasion,  but  to  no  effect ;  and,  desper- 
ate at  the  threatened  failure  of  his  cherished  scheme,  he,  like 
many  other  impatient  reformers,  felt  that  he  could  not  wait  for  a 
more  favorable  opportunity,  but  must  attain  his  end  by  a  violation 
of  law.  The  Roman  constitution  made  no  provision  for  removing 
a  magistrate  from  office,  except  the  voluntary  act  of  abdication.  Im- 
peachment, which  with  us  must  be  brought  against  a  person  while  in 
office,  could  not  in  Rome  be  brought  until  the  offender  had  retired 
from  office  :  even  if,  like  the  Decemvirs  and  the  Censor  Claudius 
(p.  59  and  89),  a  magistrate  continued  in  office  after  his  term  had 
expired,  there  was  no  legal  remedy.  Gracchus,  however,  made 
up  his  mind  to  remove  from  office  his  contumacious  colleague. 
This  was  done  by  a  vote  of  the  tribal  assembly.  The  law  relating 
to  the  public  lands  was  then  passed,  and  its  execution  entrusted 
to  a  board  of  three  commissioners,  —  Tiberius  himself,  his  younger 
brother  Gaius,  and  his  father-in-law,  Appius  Claudius.  It  did  not 
seem  safe  to  trust  the  execution  of  a  law  so  vital,  and  an  object  of 
such  fierce  opposition,  to  any  but  those  who  ardently  desired  its 
success. 

Death  of  Gracchus.  — A  violation  of  law  in  the  interest  of  per- 
sonal ambition  is  very  likely  to  be  successful,  because  the  interested 
party  is  bound  by  no  scruples  as  to  how  far  he  may  push  his  en- 
croachments ;  but  a  violation  of  law  for  good  ends  is  almost  sure 
to  fail,  because  it  at  once  shows  inconsistency,  and  excites  sus- 
picion of  personal  motives.  Gracchus'  illegal  act  had  placed  him 
in  the  wrong,  and  he  soon  found  himself  helpless.     Nothing  could 


DEATH   OF   TIBERIUS    GRACCHUS.  157 

save  him  from  impeachment  but  to  continue  in  office  a  second 
year,  and  that  too  was  illegal.  He  presented  himself  for  re- 
election, with  the  offer  of  new  favors  to  the  people ;  among  them 
that  the  recently  acquired  treasures  of  King  Attains  (p.  146)  should 
be  given  to  the  new  land-holders  for  the  purchase  of  stock  and 
tools.  But  it  was  to  no  avail;  the  nobles  were  determined  to 
have  his  hfe.  A  "mob  of  gentlemen,"  headed  by  Scipio  Nasica/ 
grandson  of  the  one  who  had  been,  seventy  years  before,  pro- 
nounced the  best  Roman  (p.  129),  attacked  Gracchus,  and  beat 
him  to  death  with  the  fragments  of  broken  benches. 

End  of  the  Commission.  —  Nevertheless  the  commissioners  pro- 
ceeded to  their  work,  took  possession,  in  the  name  of  the  state, 
of  such  lands  as  were  clearly  held  in  contravention  of  the  law,  and 
divided  them  among  actual  settlers.  But  soon  questions  of  title 
were  raised.  There  were  many  estates  in  which,  from  the  length 
of  occupation  and  the  variety  of  modes  of  acquisition,  it  was 
impossible  to  decide  readily  what  was  public  land  and  what  pri- 
vate. The  functions  of  the  commissioners  were  not  only  admin- 
istrative, in  assigning  lands,  but  judicial,  in  determining  titles. 
Complaints  were  raised  against  them ;  and,  on  the  proposition  of 
Scipio  ^milianus,  who  had  now  returned  from  the  capture  of  Nu- 
mantia,  the  right  to  decide  questions  of  ownership  was 
taken  away  from  them,  and  vested  in  the  consuls.  As  B.C.  129. 
the  consuls  had  enough  to  do,  in  their  regular  duties, 
without  undertaking  the  settlement  of  these  delicate  questions,  this 
was  equivalent  to  abolishing  the  commission.  Its  work  was  at  an 
end,  because  no  more  land  was  given  it  to  distribute. 

Result  of  the  Reforms.  —  Nevertheless,  the  reform  of  Tiberius 
Gracchus  did  not  perish  with  its  author.  His  place  upon  the 
commission  had  been  filled,  and  by  its  action  about  eighty  thou- 
sand citizens  and  allies  had  been  provided  with  homesteads. 
Thus  Italy  was  redeemed,  so  far  as,  under  the  circumstances,  it 

1  This  Scipio  Nasica,  nicknamed  Serapio,  is  in  his  youth  one  of  the  char- 
acters in  Ebers'  Sisters ;  the  characterization  is  good,  but  the  incidents  im- 
probable. 


158  TJIE    GRACClir. 

could  be  redeemed.  It  is  probable  that  any  further  resumption 
and  distribution  of  lands  would  have  worked  more  mischief  than 
good.  However  that  may  be,  the  man  who  had  arrested  the  pro- 
ceedings, Scipio  ^milianus,  at  once  lost  his  popularity,  and  was 
shortly  after  found  dead  in  his  bed.^  It  was  suspected  that  Gaius 
Carbo,  a  member  of  the  commission,  and  a  profligate  demagogue, 
was  his  murderer. 

III.   Gaius  Gracchus. 

B.C.  123.  Gaius  Gracchus.  —  Ten  years  after  his  brother,  Gaius 
Gracchus  entered  upon  the  office  of  tribune,  which  he 
held  for  two  years,  it  having  now  been  made  legal  to  hold  this 
office  in  successive  years.  He  was  superior  to  Tiberius  in  intellect 
and  in  eloquence,  more  vehement  in  nature,  and  more  inclined 
to  violent  measures,  while  his  naturally  fiery  disposition  had  been 
further  inflamed  by  his  brother's  tragical  death.  The  two  years 
of  his  tribunate  were  marked  by  a  bitter  contest  with  the  party 
of  the  aristocracy,  by  sweeping  measures  of  reform,  —  some  of 
them  very  questionable  in  policy,  —  and  at  last  by  an  end  even 
more  tragical  than  that  of  his  brother. 

.  Reforms  of  Gaius  Gracchus.  —  The  reforms  of  Tiberius  Grac- 
chus had  worked  great  benefit  to  the  Italian  people,  by  placing 
a  check  to  the  growth  of  great  properties,  and  bringing  into  exist- 
ence a  numerous  peasantry  of  the  ancient  type.  But  they  were 
reforms  which  did  not  go  far  below  the  surface.  The  causes  of 
decay,  in  the  selfishness  and  unbridled  power  of  the  nobility,  the 
destructive  system  of  slave  labor,  the  corrupting  influence  of  the 
provincial  system,  and  the  entire  inadequacy  of  the  Roman  con- 
stitution, were  still  in  full  operation  ;  and  temporary  remedies,  like 
those  of  Tiberius,  could  work  only  temporary  benefit.  Gaius 
Gracchus  saw  that  what  was  needed  was  a  fundamental  change 

1  Scipio,  who  sympathized  with  the  motives  of  Tiberius,  but  disapproved  of 
his  actions,  had,  on  hearing  of  his  death,  exclaimed  in  the  words  of  Homer : 
*'  So  perish  whoever  else  may  act  in  like  manner." 


THE   ANCIENT   CITY.  159 

in  the  organic  life  of  the  community,  and  his  legislation  was 
devised  for  this  end.  In  this  clearness  of  vision,  and  in  the 
singleness  of  purpose  with  which  he  set  about  his  end,  consists 
his  greatness  as  a  statesman ;  but  he  had  the  limitations  of  his 
age,  as  well  as  of  his  personaUty,  and  was  guilty  of  fatal  mistakes. 
Some  of  his  measures  were  wise  and  salutary,  others  only  aggra- 
vated the  evils  they  were  designed  to  remedy. 

The  Evils  to  be  remedied.  — He  saw,  no  doubt,  as  others  had 
done  long  before  him,  that  slave  labor  was  ruinous  to  the  interests  of 
the  free  population ;  but  slave  labor  was  so  completely  ingrained 
in  ancient  society  that  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  be  rid 
of  it,  even  if  such  a  thing  had  occurred  to  them.  The  provincial 
system  too  had  now  become  fastened  upon  the  Roman  people, 
and  Gains  does  not  appear  to  have  recognized  that  it  was  an  evil ; 
some  of  its  worse  features  he  even  exaggerated.  The  fundamental 
defects  of  the  political  system  of  the  Romans  he  does  not  seem  to 
have  noticed  any  more  than  his  countrymen  in  general.  Inspired 
with  a  bitter  hatred  towards  the  nobiUty,  which  had  murdered  his 
brother,  he  bent  all  his  energies  to  the  task  of  overthrowing  their 
power.  The  domination  of  Rome  over  the  subject  nations  seemed 
to  him  right ;  the  clumsy  and  incongruous  machinery  of  govern- 
ment which  had  by  successive  steps  been  created  gave  him  no 
concern ;  his  aim  was  to  shift  the  balance  of  power,  and  deprive 
the  oligarchy  at  once  of  the  administration  of  the  government  at 
home  and  the  rule  of  the  provinces  abroad. 

Political  System. — We  have  already  spoken  at  some  length 
of  the  growth  of  the  plantation  system,  the  disappearance  of  the 
free  peasantry  in  the  presence  of  slave  labor,  the  government  of 
the  provinces,  and  the  disqualification  of  the  ItaHans.  It  remains 
to  speak  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  political  system  of  the  Romans, 
an  evil  which  for  the  first  time  manifested  itself,  now  when  the 
city  upon  the  Tiber  had  become  the  controlHng  power,  not  only 
within  the  peninsula  of  Italy,  but  in  the  Mediterranean  circle  of 
lands. 

The  Ancient  City.  —  Rome  was  in  its  origin  a  city,  like  the 


160  THE    GRACCHI. 

Other  cities  of  Greece  and  Italy,  and  its  government,  now  that  it 
had  become  a  great  empire,  was  still  the  government  of  a  city. 
The  city  (ttoAis,  civitas)  of  the  ancients  was  not,  like  our  modern 
cities,  a  place  set  apart  from  the  surrounding  country,  and  distin- 
guished from  it  by  special  privileges  and  a  more  highly  organized 
government.  The  ancient  city,  as  a  body  politic,  included  the 
territory  about  it,  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  surrounding  territory 
were  not  dependent  upon,  or  subject  to,  the  inhabitants  of  the 
walled  town,  but  were  themselves  fully  qualified  citizens.  Indeed, 
ownership  of  land,  rather  than  residence  within  the  walls,  com- 
posed the  qualification  for  citizenship,  and  the  rus,  or  rural  terri- 
tory, formed  as  essential  a  part  of  the  civitas,  or  city,  as  did  the 
oppidu77i,  or  walled  town,  where  were  the  temples  and  other  public 
buildings,  the  seat  of  residence  and  trade.  The  boundaries  of  one 
city  were  also  the  boundaries  of  the  neighboring  cities,^  and  the 
whole  of  Italy  —  with  perhaps  the  exception  of  some  rocky  moun- 
tain-tops or  uncultivable  morasses  —  was  divided  up  into  the 
territory  of  its  several  cities. 

The  City  Government  of  Rome. — We  have  seen  how  Rome, 
in  its  territorial  growth,  had  step  by  step  annexed  and  incor- 
porated into  its  body  politic  a  large  part  of  the  Italian  peninsula.- 
The  free  inhabitants  of  all  this  immense  area  were  Roman  citizens, 
and  —  except  so  far  as  they  were  disqualified  for  political  reasons  — 
were  entitled  to  vote  in  the  Roman  assembUes,  and  hold  the  ofiices 
of  state.  So  far  as  their  Roman  citizenship  secured  them  in  their 
rights  of  property  and  of  personal  liberty,  it  was  a  great  advantage 
to  them,  distinguishing  them  favorably  from  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Latin  colonies  and  the  allied  towns ;  but  it  will  be  readily  seen 
that  as  an  agency  of  government  this  Roman  citizenship  could 

1  See,  to  illustrate  this,  the  map  of  Italy  in  the  time  of  the  Second  Punic 
War  (p.  1 1 8),  in  which,  for  example,  are  shown  approximately  the  territorial 
extent  of  Ardea  and  Laurentum  as  adjoining  cities. 

2  The  map  (p.  ii8)  shows  approximately  the  Roman  domain  at  this  period. 
The  City  of  Rome  {civitas  Romano)  comprised  all  the  territory  thus  desig- 
nated. 


DEFECTS   OF   THE    CONSTITUTION.  161 

have  been  of  very  little  efficacy,  either  to  the  people  themselves 
or  to  the  state.  All  pubUc  assembhes  must  be  held  within  the 
city,  and,  of  course,  as  a  rule  none  but  the  residents  of  the 
city  itself  or  of  its  immediate  neighborhood  could  be  present  at 
them.^  There  were  no  good  roads  except  the  military  highways 
—  the  Appian,  leading  to  Capua,  the  Flaminian  to  Ariminum,  and 
two  or  three  others ;  few  but  women  and  children  rode  in  car- 
riages ;  and  the  Sabine  or  Campanian  peasant  who  wished  to  vote 
in  the  election  of  magistrates  or  the  passage  of  laws  must  trudge 
on  foot  or  ride  on  horseback,  and  spend  several  days  on  the  journey 
to  and  fro.  The  elections,  moreover,  were  not  all  held  on  one 
day,  as  with  us,  but  each  class  of  magistrates  (consuls,  praetors, 
etc.)  were  elected  on  a  separate  day :  and  legislative  comitia 
might  be  held  in  any  part  of  the  year. 

The  Municipalities. — The  Romans  had  established,  in  these 
outlying  parts  of  the  peninsula,  an  admirable  system  of  municipal 
government,  by  which  all  local  affairs  were  managed  directly  by  the 
inhabitants  of  the  several  localities  (p.  99)  ;  but  for  lack  of  the 
modern  principle  of  representation,  there  was  no  machinery  to 
enable  the  inhabitants  of  these  municipalities  to  take  part  in  the 
government  of  the  republic.  This  fundamental  defect  in  their 
political  system  the  Romans  were  never  able  to  remedy.  They 
could  not  conceive  of  any  form  of  government  except  the  free  city 
of  Greece  and  Italy,  and  the  despotically  governed  empire  of  the 
Orient ;  and  when  the  city  type  broke  down,  they  could  do  nothing 
but  establish  the  autocracy. 

Constitutional  Defects.  —  An  equally  serious  defect,  and  one 
which  showed  itself  more  and  more  as  the  city  grew  to  great  pro- 
portions, was  in  the  machinery  of  government  itself,  which  was 
inconsistent  and  incoherent  in  the  highest  degree.  In  the  early 
republic  the  consul,  whose  power  was  derived  from  that  of  the  kings, 
was  the  sole  magistrate,  the  Senate  being  his  council,  and  the  popular 

1  In  the  independent  cities  of  Greece  and  Italy  it  was  a  tacitly  accepted 
rule  that  the  territory  {pagtis)  should  not  exceed  in  extent  the  distance  to  which 
a  citizen  might  go  in  the  morning  to  cultivate  his  fields,  returning  at  night. 


162  THE    GRACCHI. 

assembly  the  organ  of  the  popular  participation  in  the  government. 
As  the  business  of  state  grew  more  burdensome  and  complicated, 
a  number  of  inferior  magistrates  (praetors,  censors,  etc.)  were 
established  from  time  to  time,  with  functions  derived  from  those 
of  the  consuls.  At  the  present  time  the  consuls  were  left  with 
hardly  more  than  executive  and  military  powers,  all  their  other 
functions  being  distributed  without  order  or  symmetry  among  a 
multitude  of  inferior  officers  and  assemblies.  By  the  necessity 
of  the  case,  the  Senate,  as  a  permanent  body  of  experienced 
statesmen,  had  taken  the  government  in  hand,  and  superintended 
and  controlled  the  action  of  all  the  magistrates  and  assemblies. 
As  long  as  the  Senate  was  "an  assemblage  of  kings"  (p.  98), 
this  work  of  co-ordination  was  done  wisely  and  efficiently ;  and 
the  inherent  evils  of  the  form  of  government  were  not  per- 
ceived. Now  that  the  Senate  was  an  assembly  of  tyrants  and 
speculators,  the  government  of  Rome  became  more  and  more 
weak  and  incompetent. 

Attack  upon  Senatorial  Government.  —  It  was,  therefore,  with 
a  clear  judgment  of  the  needs  of  the  situation,  that  Gains  Gracchus 
directed  his  attack  against  the  government  of  the  Senate,  as  the 
chief  obstacle  to  any  permanent  remedy  for  the  economical  and 
social  evils  of  the  time.  But  it  was  not  so  easy  to  find  a  substi- 
tute for  the  Senate,  as  the  supreme  power  in  the  state,  and  here 
was  the  principal  weakness  of  his  plan  of  reform.  To  place  an 
autocrat  at  the  head  of  the  state  would  have  been  to  break  vio- 
lently with  Roman  tradition.  To  create  an  effective  system  of 
republican  administration,  so  long  as  the  city  type  of  government 
was  preserved,  was  a  problem  beyond  the  capacity  or  ideas  of 
classical  antiquity. 

The  Plan  of  Gains  Gracchus.  —  The  plan  of  Gains  Gracchus 
seems  to  have  been  to  get  into  his  own  hands  a  controlling  influ- 
ence in  the  state,  similar  to  that  which  Pericles  had  possessed  in 
Athens,  not  as  a  permanent  chief  magistrate  of  monarchical  char- 
acter, but  as  an  influential  citizen  :  his  authority  partly  resting  upon 
moral  ascendency,  partly  associated  with  the  tenure  of  the  regular 


LEGISLATION   OF  GAIUS   GRACCHUS.  163 

magistracies.  For  this  purpose  the  tribunate  was  well  fitted.  It 
could  be  held  continuously,  it  gave  the  power  of  controlling  all 
the  other  magistracies,  and  also  the  right  to  summon  the  legisla- 
tive assembly  and  convoke  the  Senate.  As  long,  therefore,  as  he 
could  persuade  the  people  to  elect  him  to  this  office,  and  he  was 
protected  by  its  sacred  character,  he  was  master  of  Senate,  people, 
and  magistrates.  But  if  he  once  should  lose  this  moral  ascen- 
dency, —  and  he  lost  it  the  second  year,  —  his  power  was  gone. 
We  shall  see,  when  we  come  to  the  establishment  of  the  Empire 
by  Augustus  Caesar,  how  this  fertile  idea  of  the  tribunician  power 
as  the  foundation  of  supreme  authority  was  revived,  and  was 
supplemented  by  being  joined  with  the  military  power,  —  the 
point  in  which  the  plan  of  Gains  Gracchus  was  weak. 

Reform  of  the  Senate.  —  Gracchus  did  not  propose  to  abolish 
the  Senate  as  the  supreme  power  in  the  state,  but  undertook  to 
overthrow  the  nobility,  as  the  power  that  controlled  the  Senate  and 
through  it  the  state.  He  proposed  to  restore  the  dignity  and  char- 
acter of  the  Senate  by  adding  to  it  an  equal  number  of  Knights,  or 
persons  of  so-called  equestrian  families  ;  that  is,  families  that  were 
wealthy,  but  not  noble.^  Of  course  the  new  members  thus  added 
would  soon  have  been  merged  in  the  nobility,  but  in  the  mean- 
time a  better  public  sentiment  might  have  been  created.  And, 
while  leaving  this  enlarged  Senate  in  the  possession  of  the  govern- 
ment, Gracchus  deprived  its  members  of  one  source  of  profit  and 
corruption  by  a  law  requiring  that  the. judges  in  the  court  of 
Repetimdae  (p.  148)  should  be  no  longer  taken  from  the  Senate, 
but  from  members  of  the  equestrian  order. 

Miscalculations  of  Gracchus.  —  Here  again  his  calculations 
were  at  fault.  The  new  judges  proved  no  less  corrupt  than  the 
old,  for  they  were  exposed  to  equal  temptations.  If  the  provincial 
governors  were  taken  from  the  Senate,  the  publicans  —  quite  as 
intolerable  a  scourge  to  the  provinces  —  were  of  the  equestrian 

1  They  were  called  equestrian  because  they  were  qualified  by  their  property 
to  serve  in  the  cavalry,  and  it  was  from  them  that  the  eqidies  eqiio  private  (p. 
70)  were  taken. 


164  THE    GRACCHI. 

order,  and  were  quite  as  well  disposed  as  the  senators  to  shield 
delinquents  of  their  own  order.  That  he  might  still  further  gain  the 
Knights  to  his  support,  he  extended  to  the  newly  acquired  prov- 
ince of  Asia,  the  system  of  farming  the  revenues  by  companies  of 
publicans,  thus  still  further  sacrificing  the  provincials  to  the  sup- 
l)osed  interests  of  Rome.  But  while  sacrificing  the  provincials,  he 
favored  the  Italian  allies,  whom  he  proposed  to  admit  to  citizen- 
ship —  a  proposition  which  lost  him  the  support  of  the  selfish  mob 
of  Rome. 

Popular  Measures.  —  By  these  measures  he  expected  to  estab- 
lish a  control  over  the  Senate.  For  continuance  in  his  office  of 
tribune  he  must  look  to  the  people,  and  here  again  he  favored  the 
Romans  at  the  expense  of  the  provinces.  Sales  of  corn,  the  con- 
tribution of  the  provinces,  at  a  much  reduced  price,  had  been 
occasionally  made.  Gains  Gracchus  made  them  regular,  thus 
establishing  the  principle  that  the  sovereign  people  were  to  be  fed 
at  the  public  expense.  The  agrarian  legislation  of  his  brother  was 
revived  and  extended  in  some  way,  as  to  the  details  of  which  we 
are  ignorant ;  and  besides  this  the  policy  was  established  of  plant- 
ing colonies  in  the  provinces.  The  available  land  in  Italy  had 
been  now  for  the  most  part  taken  up.  What  public  lands  still 
remained  were  either  unsuitable  for  homesteads,  or  were  retained 
by  the  state  to  be  rented  as  a  source  of  public  revenue.  He 
proposed,  therefore,  to  establish  twelve  colonies  in  the  provinces, 
and  himself  carried  a  body  of  settlers  to  the  abandoned  site  of 
Carthage,  where  he  founded  the  colony  of  Junonia  (p.  145), 
the  first  Roman  colony  outside  of  Italy.  A  second  colony, 
Narbo  {Narbojine),  was  founded  shortly  after  his 
B.C.  120.  death,  and  at  about  the  same  time  the  territory  be- 
tween the  Pyrenees  and  the  Alps  was  made  into  the 
province  of  Transalpine  or  Narbonnese  Gaul.^  The  rest  of  his 
colonial  plan  was  abandoned. 

Overthrow  of  Gaius  Gracchus.  — But  the  ascendency  of  Gains 

1  This  included  none  of  the  sea-coast,  except  the  town  of  Narbo  itself,  the 
rest  of  the  coast  being  in  the  possession  of  Massilia. 


DEATH  OF  GAIUS   GRACCHUS.  165 

Gracchus,  resting  upon  the  selfish  interests  of  the  citizens  and  the 
precarious  tenure  of  an  annual  magistracy,  was  easily  overthrown. 
Another  tribune,  Marcus  Livius  Drusus,  outbade  him  for  popular 
support  by  proposing  twelve  colonies  in  Italy,  with  lands  in 
full  ownership ;  and  the  fickle  people  hastened  to  support  their 
new  leader.  The  excitement  reached  a  tremendous  height. 
Gracchus  lost  his  election,  and  became  a  private  citizen.  In 
January,  B.C.  121,  the  new  consul,  Lucius  Opimius,  took  active 
measures  against  him.  Gracchus  and  his  coadjutor  Flaccus  en- 
trenched themselves  on  the  Aventine  Mount,  where  they  were 
attacked  and  routed  by  the  consul.  A  bloody  battle  followed  in 
the  streets  of  Rome.  The  two  insurgent  leaders  were  killed,  and 
it  is  said  that  three  thousand  of  their  party  were  afterwards 
strangled  in  prison.  The  consul  Lucius  Opimius,  by  a  grim 
irony,  to  commemorate  this  restoration  of  order,  built  a  temple 
to  Harmony  (  Concordia)  at  the  head  of  the  Forum,  which  was 
thereafter  one  of  the  principal  temples  of  the  city,  used  as  a 
museum  of  art,  and  a  frequent  place  of  assemblage  for  the  Senate.^ 

1  It  was  probably  a  restoration,  on  a  larger  scale,  of  that  vowed  by  Camillus, 
B.C.  367  (p.  75).  It  was  again  rebuilt  by  Tiberius,  and  its  remains  are  now 
to  be  seen  between  the  Tabularium  and  the  Arch  of  Septimius  Severus. 


166  MARIUS. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

MARIUS. 
I.   The  Contest  of  Parties. 

Parties  in  Rome.  — The  Roman  people  were  now  divided  into 
two  hostile  parties,  —  the  optimates,  or  party  of  the  nobility,  and 
the  popidares,  or  party  of  the  people.  These  parties  were  not 
merely  divided  by  a  difference  of  opinion  upon  public  policy,  but 
by  personal  and  pecuniary  interests ;  and  this  gave  the  contest  a 
degree  of  bitterness  which,  as  we  have  seen,  had  already  led  to 
bloodshed.  What  incited  the  nobles  to  the  murder  of  the  Gracchi 
was  not  the  question  whether  the  landless  should  receive  land,  but 
the  fact  that  the  land  so  bestowed  was  to  come  out  of  their  posses- 
sions,—  that  they  were  assailed  in  their  vested  interests.  In 
the  party  contest  which  now  ensued  the  equestrian  order  —  the 
wealthy  citizens  who  were  not  noble  —  sided  for  the  present  with 
the  popular es ;  but  the  ascendency  of  the  optimafes,  which  had 
been  established  by  violence,  was  maintained  by  the  votes  of  their 
clients  and  dependents. 

Party  Questions. — The  principal  questions  in  dispute  were, 
first,  that  of  the  law  courts,  which  Gaius  Gracchus  had  taken  from 
the  senators  and  given  to  the  knights ;  secondly,  the  admission  of 
the  Latins  and  the  Italian  allies  to  the  privileges  of  citizenship. 
For  a  long  time  there  had  been  no  real  difference  between  Romans 
and  other  Italians,  except  that  the  Romans  were  the  ruling  power, 
and  the  Italians  were  subjects.  All  power  went  with  Roman  citi- 
zenship, and  along  with  the  power  went  social  superiority  and 
pecuniary  privileges.  The  Gracchi  had  begun  the  movement  for 
the  enfranchisement  of  the  Italians,  and  one  cause  of  their  failure 
was  the  unwillingness  of  the  Romans  to  give  up  any  share  of  their 


THE   JUGURTHINE   WAR.  167 

privileges  to  the  despised  Italians.  Here  lay  the  strength  of  the 
optimates,  for  the  poorest  Roman  felt  that  he  had  his  special  rights 
to  defend. 

Territorial  Relations.  — The  land  question  was  for  the  present 
at  rest,  inasmuch  as  all  the  available  land  in  Italy  had  been  dis- 
posed of;  and  the  lands  occupied  by  the  nobles,  as  well 
as  those  assigned  to  settlers  by  the  Sempronian  laws,  B.C.  111. 
were  shortly  after  given  to  the  occupants  in  full  owner- 
ship. From  this  time  there  was  no  longer  any  ager  publicus  in 
Italy,  except  certain  tracts  rented  to  publicans,  chiefly  as  pastures.^ 
The  scheme  of  colonies  in  the  provinces  too,  after  the  planting 
of  Junonia  (Carthage)  and  Narbo,  was  allowed  to  drop.  But 
the  occupation  of  Narbo  brought  after  it  the  establishment  of  the 
province  of  Transalpine  or  Narbonnese  Gaul  (p.  164),  and  the 
possession  of  this  new  province  was  attended  with  important 
consequences. 

War  with  Jugurtha.  —  The  first  event  of  importance  during 
this  period  of  the  revived  ascendency  of  the  nobility  was  a  long 
and  obstinate  war  with  Jugurtha,  king  of  Numidia.     Jugurtha  was 
grandson  of  Masinissa,  and  had  obtained  his  throne  by  the  murder 
of  his  cousins,  the  rightful  heirs,  aided  by  the  corrupt  connivance 
of  Roman  senators.     When  public  opinion  at  last  forced 
the  Senate  to  make  war  upon  Jugurtha,  the  first  com-    B.C.  112. 
manders  who  were    sent   against   him,   equally  greedy, 
incompetent,  and  corrupt,  only  left  matters  in  a  worse 
condition  than  they  found  them.     It  was  not  until  the    B.C.  109. 
command  was  taken  by  Quintus  Csecilius  Metellus,  known 
as  Numidicus,  a  nobleman  of  ability  and  high  character,  that  affairs 
began  to  mend.     Metellus  was  perhaps  the  best  Roman  of  his 
generation ;  but  the  Roman  type  had  fallen  far  below  the  stand- 
ard of  Fabricius  (p.  94),  who  had  delivered  up  the  physician  of 
King  Pyrrhus  when  he  came  to  him  with  an  offer  to  poison  his 

1  The  most  important  of  these  tracts,  the  ager  Stellatimis  in  Campania, 
became  again  the  subject  of  agrarian  agitation  in  the  time  of  Coesar;  but  this 
was  just  before  the  collapse  of  the  republican  institutions. 


168  MAR  I  US. 

master.  Metellus  had  no  scruple  in  bribing  the  servants  and 
officers  of  his  enemy,  and  would  have  regarded  as  justified  any 
treachery  which  should  get  Jugurtha  into  his  hands.  He  was, 
moreover,  offensively  proud  and  arrogant. 
(UV  Gaius  Marius.  —  The  best  officer  in  Metellus'  army  was  Gains 
"^  Marius,  a  peasant  of  Arpinum,  who  had  risen  purely  by  merit  from 
low  birth  to  high  position,  and  had  held  all  grades  of  honor  except 
the  highest,  the  consulship.  When  Marius  asked  leave  of  absence 
from  the  army,  in  order  to  present  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the 
consulship,  he  received  the  contemptuous  answer  that  it  would  be 
time  enough  for  him  to  seek  the  consulship  when  he  could  do  it 
in  company  with  the  son  of  Metellus,  then  a  young  man  of  about 
twenty.  As  the  legal  age  for  the  consulship  was  forty-three,  this 
meant  a  delay  of  about  twenty  years.  Marius  never  forgot  the 
insult.     Shortly  after,  however,  Metellus  grudgingly  granted  the 

leave  of  absence.     Marius  was  elected  consul  by  a  large 
B.C.  107.     majority,  and  assigned  to  the  command  in  Numidia  by  a 

vote  of  the  people,  thus  superseding  his  old  commander. 
B.C.  106.    The  next  year  Jugurtha  was  taken  prisoner  by  a  young 

officer  named  Sulla,  and  carried  to  Rome,  where  he  was 
put  to  death.  Part  of  his  territory  of  Numidia  was  annexed  to 
the  kingdom  of  Mauritania  {Morocco),  whose  king,  Bocchus,  had 
assisted  in  the  overthrow  of  Jugurtha ;  part  remained  under  native 
princes  until  the  time  of  Caesar. 
,.  The  Cimbri  and  Teutones.  —  During  the  war  with  Jugurtha  a 
still  more  formidable  danger  had  threatened  the  Roman  power 
in  the  advance  of  the  German  tribes,  the  Cimbri  and  the  Teutones, 
upon  the  new  province  of  Transalpine  Gaul.  This  was  the  com- 
mencement of  that  series  of  invasions  and  migrations  which, 
five  hundred  years  later,  broke  the  Roman  Empire  to  fragments. 
From  this  date  the  relations  with  the  Germans  seldom  ceased  to 
be  a  source  of  perplexity  and  danger.  The  nations  of  the  Teutonic 
race  had  been,  we  must  suppose,  for  hundreds  of  years  slowly 
moving  towards  the  west  from  their  original  seat  in  the  far  east. 
When  at  last  they  reached  the  Rhine,  they  found  themselves  no 


THE    CIMBRI  AND    TEU TONES.  169 

longer  in  the  presence  of  savage  tribes,  occupying  wild  forests  and 
dreary  steppes,  but  saw  before  them  a  rich  and  well-cultivated 
land  in  the  possession  of  a  people,  the  Gauls,  well  advanced  in 
civilization  and  prosperity.  At  this  point  the  onward  movement 
of  the  Germans  was  necessarily  checked,  and  they  passed  by  slow 
degrees  into  the  customs  and  institutions  of  settled  Hfe. 

The  Cimbric  Invasion.  —  It  was  in  the  invasion  of  the 
Cimbri  and  Teutones  that  this  great  wave  of  Teutonic  migra- 
tion reached  the  Roman  dominions.  These  tribes  did 
not  pause  at  the  barrier  of  the  Rhine  and  the  pos-  B.C.  113. 
sessions  of  the  Gauls,  but  passed  over  the  bounds,  and 
made  their  way  towards  the  fertile  fields  of  Italy.  Army  after 
army  of  the  Romans  was  defeated  by  these  new  enemies,  who  at 
last,  in  the  year  105,  gained  a  victory  at  Arausio  (  Orange)  upon  the 
Rhone,  almost  as  complete  as  those  at  the  Allia  and  at  Cannae. 
In  terror  the  Romans  elected  as  consul  for  the  next  year  Marius, 
the  hero  of  the  Numidian  war;  and  when  by  some  caprice  the 
victorious  Germans  turned  away  from  Italy,  and  roamed  through 
Gaul  and  Spain  for  two  or  three  successive  years,  they  re-elected 
him  in  four  successive  years,  in  order  to  be  ready  for  the  coming 
danger.  It  was  an  illegal  act,^  but  the  safety  of  the  state  prevailed 
against  the  letter  of  the  law. 

Victories  of  Marius.  — At  last  the  invaders  again  set  their  faces 
towards  Italy ;  but  the  two  nations  had  separated,  and  each  moved 
by  itself.  In  the  year  102  the  Teutones  were  met  at  Aquae  Sextiae 
(^Aix)  in  Southern  Gaul,  not  far  from  the  battle-field  of  Arausio, 
and  annihilated  by  Marius.  Their  companions,  the  Cimbri,  made 
their  way  across  the  Alps  to  the  valley  of  the  Po  in  Northern  Italy, 
where  the  following  year,  loi,  they  were  cut  in  pieces  at  the 
Raudian  Fields,  not  far  from  Vercellae,  by  the  colleagues,  Marius 
and  Catulus.  In  this  battle  Catulus,  one  of  the  best  members  of 
the  nobility,  did  good  service ;  but  the  chief  merit  belonged  to 

1  The  order  in  which  and  the  age  at  which  the  several  magistracies  could 
be  held  were  fixed  by  the  Vilhan  law  (b.c.  180).  Ten  years  must  by  law 
elapse  before  any  magistracy  could  be  held  a  second  time. 


170 


MARIUS. 


s 


'^. 


Marius,  and  it  was  his  victory  of  the  year  before  that  made  this 
victory  possible.  For  the  present,  therefore,  danger  from  this 
source  was  averted. 

Military  Reforms  of  Marius,  —  Marius  was  an  unlettered  peas- 
ant, a  man  wholly  without  political  abilities  or  statesmanship,  of 
violent  and  unforgiving  temper;    but  he  was  personally  honest, 
and  his  military  abilities  were  of  a  high  order.     To  him  is  attributed 
the  re-organization  of  the  legion,  the  most 
important  military  reform  since  the  intro- 
duction of  the  manipular  order  in  the  time 
of  Camillus  (p.  69).     The  division  of  the 
legion  into  thirty  maniples,  breaking  up 
the  phalanx  into  small  divisions  capable 
of  independent   action,  led   naturally  to 
the  practice   of  giving   more   and    more 
scope   to    the   individuality,  both   of  the 
division  and  of  the  soldier.  The  first  step 
was   the   formation   of    the    three    lines, 
advance  {Jiastati),  main  line  {principes), 
and  reserves   {iriarii),  which  came  suc- 
'^'^'^'^^'  cessively  into  action  as  they  were  needed. 

It  then  became  customary  to  combine  three  or  more  maniples 
into  larger  temporary  divisions,  called  cohorts.  Scipio,  at  Zama 
(p.  127),  by  leaving  larger  spaces  between  the  three  hnes,  and 
thus  allowing  more  independence  of  action,  took  the  final  step  in 
the  manipular  organization.  The  legion,  as  thus  organized,  showed 
its  superiority  over  the  Greek  phalanx  at  Cynocephalgs  and  Pydna 

(PP-  i33>  ^36). 

Marius'  Military  Organization.  —  The  decay  of  the  Italian 
peasantry,  from  which  the  Roman  infantry  had  been  chiefly  re- 
cruited, made  the  old  method  of  a  citizen  soldiery  composed  of 
men  of  substance  no  longer  available.  Marius,  therefore,  intro- 
duced the  custom  of  taking  soldiers  from  all  classes  of  citizens,^ 

*  This  bust  passes  as  that  of  Marius,  but  is  of  very  (lo?il)tful  authenticity. 
■^  Citizenship  was  at  all  times  a  requirement  for  service  in  the  legions;   and 


SATURNINUS  AND    GLAUCIA.  171 

principally  men  of  no  property.  Thus  the  character  of  the  army 
was  fundamentally  changed,  and  it  was  henceforth  composed  of  a 
low  class  of  professional  fighters.  The  distinction  in  equipment 
and  service,  which  had  been  observed  when  every  soldier  was  a 
citizen  of  standing,  was  no  longer  befitting.  The  system  of  three 
permanent  lines  was  abohshed,  and  every  maniple  provided  with 
the  same  equipment,  and  employed  in  the  same  service.^  The 
threefold  order  of  battle  was  still  the  usual  one ;  but,  now  that 
the  permanent  Hues  were  abolished,  the  several  cohorts  were 
drawn  up  as  seemed  fit  at  the  time  —  the  best  troops  generally  in 
the  front  line.  The  cohort,  which  had  until  now  been  an  occa- 
sional grouping  of  maniples,  now  became  a  regular  and  permanent 
division,  being  one-tenth  of  a  legion,  and  consisting  of  three 
maniples.  The  cohort,  as  well  as  the  maniple,  now  had  a  standard 
of  its  own ;  and  a  new  standard,  the  silver  eagle,  was  introduced 
for  the  legion. 

Saturninus  and  Glaucia.  —  The  great  work  which  Marius  ac- 
complished for  his  country  was  the  defeat  of  the  Teutonic  inva- 
sion, but  the  Roman  politicians  of  the  popular  party  conceived 
the  design  of  using  the  simple-minded  soldier  for  the  furtherance  of 
their  political  schemes.  The  leaders  of  this  party  were  Saturninus 
and  Glaucia,  the  successors  of  the  Gracchi,  but  men  of  a  much 
lower  type.  For  the  year  loo  they  procured  the  election  of 
Marius  to  his  sixth  consulship,  while  Glaucia  was  elected  praetor 
and  Saturninus  tribune  of  the  people.  This  formidable  combina- 
tion proposed  to  take  the  government  of  Rome  in  hand  just  as 
Gains  Gracchus  had  done,  but  with  a  more  complete  organization, 
and  with  less  scruple  as  to  means. 

Sedition  of  B.C.  100.  —  The  propositions  made  by  these  con- 
federates aimed  in  general  to  carry  out  the  policy  of  Gains 
Gracchus,  —  the  creation  of  new  colonies  in  the  Po  valley  and  the 

when,  under  the  empire,  non-citizens  were  recruited  into  them,  they  received 
citizenship  at  the  time  of  enlistment. 

1  The  names  triarii,  principes,  and  hastati  were  still  used,  but  only  for  the 
centurions  of  the  maniples,  to  distinguish  them  in  rank. 


172  MARIUS. 

provinces  (in  these  colonies  Italians  were  to  have  equal  rights  with 
Romans),  the  confirmation  of  the  judicial  power  of  the  knights, 
and  larger  distributions  of  corn  to  the  people.  By  the  unblushing 
use  of  violence  these  laws  were  carried,  and  all  members  of  the 
Senate  required  to  take  oath  to  support  them.  Metellus  Numidicus 
alone  refused  to  take  the  oath,  and  was  by  consequence  obliged 
to  go  into  exile.  Marius,  who  was  already  beginning  to  shrink 
from  the  more  radical  measures  of  his  associates,  took  the  oath 
with  a  mental  reser\^ation,  —  "so  far  as  the  laws  were  really  valid." 
Victory  of  the  Nobility.  —  As  in  the  case  of  the  Gracchi,  an 
armed  colKsion  followed  between  the  reformers  and  the  adherents 
of  the  Senate ;  and  Marius,  as  chief  magistrate  of  the  state,  found 
himself  at  the  head  of  an  armed  force,  opposed  to  his  old  associ- 
ates. A  battle  was  fought  on  the  Forum,  in  which  the  revolution- 
ary party  was  wholly  crushed.  Saturninus  and  many  others  were 
taken  prisoners,  and  confined  in  the  Senate-house,  where  they 
were  stoned  to  death  by  the  young  nobles,  who  climbed  upon  the 
roof,  and  stripped  off  the  tiles  for  this  purpose.  Glaucia  was  also 
found  and  put  to  death.  Their  laws  were  abrogated,  and  for 
another  ten  years  the  rule  of  the  nobility  was  confirmed ;  but 
Marius,  through  whom  the  victory  had  been  obtained,  was  thor- 
oughly discredited  with  both  parties,  and  remained  for  several 
years  in  obscurity. 

II.   The  Social  War. 

The  Italian  Question.  —  The  burning  question  at  Rome  was 
now  that  of  the  Italian  allies,  who  were  becoming  more  and  more 
impatient  in  their  demand  to  be  placed  upon  an  equality  with  the 
Romans.  Upon  this  question  the  leaders  of  the  popular  party 
had  a  true  sense  of  the  needs  of  the  situation.     The  movement 

begun  by  the  agitation  of  Gracchus  did  not  stop  until, 
A.D.  212.    by  the  famous  edict  of  Caracalla,  citizenship  was  extended 

to  provincials  as  well  as  to  Italians.  The  selfish  ambi- 
tion and  violence  of  Saturninus  and  Glaucia  had  only  delayed  the 


THE  REFORMS   OF  DRUSUS.  173 

reform.     In  the  consulship  of  the  great  jurist,  Scaevola, 

and  the  great  orator,  Crassus,  both  of  them  moderate  as      B.C.  95. 

well  as  upright  members  of  the  aristocracy,  a  law  was 

passed  prohibiting,  under  severe  penalties,  the  citizens  of  allied 

towns  from  claiming  the  privileges  of  Roman  citizenship.     The 

passage  of  this  law  hastened  the  crisis. 

Drusus. — The  question  came  to  an  issue  in  the  year  91. 
The  tribune  Marcus  Livius  Drusus,  son  of  the  rival  of  Gaius 
Gracchus  (p.  165),  and  one  of  the  most  prominent  members  of  the 
nobility,  came  forward  as  champion  of  the  Italians.  With  the 
proposition  to  grant  citizenship  to  the  allied  cities  he  combined 
other  reforms,  —  the  reorganization  of  the  Senate  by  the  admis- 
sion of  three  hundred  new  members,  and  the  restoration  of  the 
courts  to  this  body;  he  proposed  to  secure  the  support  of  the 
common  people  by  distributions  of  corn  and  grants  of  land.  His 
principal  supporter  in  this  reform  was  Lucius  Licinius  Crassus, 
the  leading  orator  of  the  time.  Crassus  had,  as  chief  magistrate, 
rigidly  enforced  the  laws  against  the  allies ;  but  now,  as  a  states- 
man, he  used  all  his  efforts  to  advance  their  interests.  Even  this 
moderate  measure  of  reform,  emanating  from  their  own  body, 
met  with  the  determined  opposition  of  the  nobility.  After  a 
stormy  debate  Crassus  suddenly  died,  and  Drusus  was  shortly 
after  assassinated.      His  propositions  of  law  died  with  him. 

The  Varian  Commission.  —  The  fate  of  Drusus  and  his  meas- 
ures taught  the  Italians  that  they  had  nothing  to  expect,  either 
from  a  sentiment  of  justice  or  from  a  policy  of  wise 
statesmanship,  and  they  at  once  rose  in  rebellion.  The  B.C.  90. 
first  uprising  was  premature,  and  only  incited  the  Romans 
to  severity.  A  commission  of  investigation  was  appointed,  upon 
the  proposition  of  Quintus  Varius,  the  supposed  murderer  of 
Drusus ;  and  by  this  commission  a  number  of  the  associates  and 
sympathizers  of  Drusus  were  banished.  ^,_^ 

The  Uprisings  of  the  Italians. — The  insurrection,  however, '.'U 
went  on.  It  found  little  support  in  the  northern  regions,  —  Etru-'^ 
ria  and  Umbria,  —  where    the   plantation  system  was  most  fully 


1 74  MARIUS. 

developed,  and  the  middle  class  had  nearly  disappeared.  Its 
strength  was  in  the  vigorous  tribes  of  Central  and  Southern  Italy, 
the  Samnites,  and  kindred  nations  of  Italian  stock,  among  whom 
a  numerous  peasantry  still  survived,  and  kept  up  the  traditions  of 
the  simple  and  healthful  social  system  of  earlier  times.  The  Latin 
colonies  remained  loyal,  as  in  the  war  with  Hannibal,  and  many 
cities  of  the  alhes  did  the  same. 

Italia.  —  The  insurgents  were  inspired  by  no  mean  ambition. 
They   aimed  at  nothing  less   than   the   complete  destruction   of 
Rome,  and  the  establishment  of  a  new  empire,  which  should  em- 
brace the  whole  peninsula.     In  the  form  of  government:  which 
they  established,  they  did  not  rise  above  the  con- 
ceptions of  their  age.    The  only  type  of  free  govern- 
ment of  which  they  could  conceive  was  the  City 
(p.  1 60)  ;  they  proposed  to  found  a  new  city  to 
take  the  place  of  Rome,  —  not  as  capital  of  the 
confederacy,  according  to  our  modern  notions,  but 
'^^'sociirwl"/''^    as  itself  the  State,  with  a  territory  embracing  all 
(The  Italian  ox     Italy,  and  a  body  politic  coextensive  with  the  terri- 
goring  the  Ro-     tory.     For  this  purpose  they  selected  the  city  of 
man  wolf.)  Corfinium,    situated   as  nearly  as  possible  in  the 

centre  of  the  peninsula,  and  gave  it  the  name  of  Italia ;  this  city 
was  to  be  henceforth  Italy.  But  while  the  new  city  was  to  embrace 
the  whole  of  Italy,  on  the  other  hand  its  ambition  was  to  be  limited 
to  Italy ;  the  selection  of  this  spot  among  the  high  Apennines  was 
in  itself  a  surrender  of  all  possibility  of  universal  dominion.  The 
poverty  of  the  confederates  in  political  ideas  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  they  slavishly  copied  the  Roman  constitution  in  all  essential 
details  ;  they  do  not  appear,  however,  to  have  adopted  the  tribunate, 
its  worst  feature. 

~"  The  Social  War.  —  The  war  was  an  unequal  one.  The  well- 
trained  armies  of  centralized  Rome,  supported  by  the  wealth  of 
all  the  provinces,  and  led  by  such  experienced  leaders  as  Marius 
and  Sulla,  and  younger  leaders  of  promise,  like  Tucius  Caesar, 
Metellus  Pius,  and  Gnasus  Pompey,  were  more  than  a  match  for 


CITIZENSHIP   GRANTED    TO    THE   A  LUES.  175 

the  resources  of  the  loosely  knit  confederacy.  The  contest  was 
heroically  kept  up  for  two  years,  with  successes  on  both  sides ; 
but  the  Romans,  by  adroit  policy,  succeeded  at  last  in  dividing 
the  confederates,  by  the  offer  of  favorable  terms  of  sub- 
mission. The  Julian  law,  proposed  by  the  consul  Lucius  B.C.  90. 
C^sar,  gave  citizenship  to  all  communities  which  had 
remained  loyal ;  and  the  Plautian-Papirian  law,  shortly  after,  made 
the  same  offer  to  all  which  should  return  to  allegiance.  Thus,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  Latins  (p.  80),  the  citizenship  which  had  been 
churlishly  refused  before  the  war,  was  after  all  granted  as  its 
result. 

The  Municipal  System.  —  All  Italy  was  now  brought  within 
the  territorial  limits  and  political  organization  of  Rome.  But 
the  name  Italy  was  not  at  this  time  applied  to  the  regions  north 
of  Umbria  and  Etruria ;  here  was  Cisalpine  Gaul,  a  province  in 
which  there  were  a  number  of  Roman  and  Latin  colonies,  but 
which  did  not  receive  citizenship  as  a  whole  until  about  forty 
years  later.  All  the  cities  of  Italy,  south  of  Cisalpine  Gaul,  now 
formed  municipal  towns,^  the  citizens  of  which  were  also  fully 
qualified  citizens  of  Rome,  with  magistrates  and  assemblies  of 
their  own,  in  which  all  purely  local  matters  were  managed.  This 
admirable  system,  the  foundation  of  our  modern  poHtical  system, 
was  the  creation  of  the  political  genius  of  the  Romans ;  and  its 
complete  adoption  —  of  course  as  the  gradual  work  of  several 
years-  —  was  the  fruit  of  the  Social  War. 

1  From  this  time  the  distinction  between  colonies  and  municipia  (p.  99) 
is  practically  effaced;  but  the  colonies,  both  Roman  and  Latin,  looking  to 
Rome  as  their  metropolis,  retained  their  distinctive  appellation,  and  were 
regarded  as  ranking  a  little  higher  in  dignity. 

2  The  municipal  system  received  its  final  shape  in  the  Lex  Julia  Mtinici- 
palis,  of  Julius  Caesar  (B.C.  45),  and  was  afterwards  extended  into  the  provinces. 


176 


SULLA. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 


SULLA. 


I.    The  First  Civil  War. 


Mithradates^  VI.,  of  Pontus.  —  Just  as  the  Social  War  was  fin- 
ished, a  new  war,  of  formidable  proportions,  was  brought  upon 
Rome  by  an  antagonist  only  second  to  Hannibal  in  ability,  and 
perhaps  more  violent  in  his  antagonism ;  while  his  savage  and  un- 
scrupulous temper  made  him  an  even  more 
dangerous  enemy.  This  was  IVIithradates 
VL,  kins:  of  Pontus.  Pontus  was  one  of 
the  petty  states  of  Asia  Minor,  which  had 
gained  their  independence  when  the  em- 
pire of  the  Seleucidae  began  to  break  up 
(p.  132).  Situated  upon  the  southeastern 
shore  of  the  Pontus  Euxinus  {Black  Sea), 
from  which  it  derived  its  name,  it  had  ex- 
tended its  territory  so  as  to  embrace  all 
the  eastern  coast  of  that  sea,  as  well  as  the  Crimean  peninsula, 
upon  the  north,  where  a  prosperous  Greek  community  had  existed 
for  many  generations.  The  king  of  Armenia,  Tigranes,  had  mar- 
ried the  daughter  of  Mithradates,  and  added  the  resources  of 
his  kingdom  to  that  of  his  father-in-law. 

Schemes  of  Mithradates.  —  Having  thus  established  his  empire 
in  the  east  of  Asia  Minor,  Mithradates  prepared  to  expel  the  Romans 
from  their  province  of  Asia  (p.  146),  which  embraced  its  western 
portion,  and  to  extend  his  dominion  over  the  entire  peninsula. 

1  This  is  shown  hy  coins  to  be  the  correct  spelling  of  the  name;  it  is 
associated  with  the  cult  of  the  oriental  god  Mithras. 


MITHRADATES   VI. 


BEGINNING    OF   THE    CIVIL    WARS.  \11 

He  rapidly  overran  the  country,  got  the  Roman  gov-  B.C.  88. 
ernor,  ]\Lanms  AquiUius,  into  his  hands,  and  put  him  to 
death  by  pouring  molten  gold  down  his  throat,  in  derisive  allusion 
to  the  Roman  thirst  for  gold.  Then,  from  his  headquarters  at 
Ephesus,  he  issued  orders  for  a  massacre  of  all  the  Italian  inhabi- 
tants of  Asia  in  one  day  :  eighty  thousand,  at  the  lowest  computa- 
tion, were  thus  murdered, 

Sulla.  —  The  Romans  at  once  declared  war,  and  committed  its 
conduct  to  the  consul,  Lucius  Cornelius  Sulla.^  Sulla  was  a  mem- 
ber of  a  noble  patrician  family,  a  man  of  extraordinary  ability, 
both  as  a  general  and  as  a  statesman,  but  cruel  and  vindictive, 
even  beyond  the  measure  of  his  age  and  nation.  He  had  been 
Marius'  best  officer  in  the  war  against  Jugurtha,  and  it  was  he 
that  had  brought  the  war  to  an  end,  by  capturing  the  Numidian 
king  (p.  1 68).  Since  that  time  the  two  men  had  become  rivals 
and  personal  enemies.  Sulla's  cold,  conserv^ative  nature,  governed 
by  a  keen  and  far-seeing  intellect,  was  in  every  way  a  contrast 
to  the  hot  temper  and  democratic  sympathies  of  his  old  com- 
mander ;  and  now  political  differences  intensified  and  gave  direc- 
tion to  their  animosity.  Sulla  was  as  completely  identified  with 
the  party  of  the  opiiinates  as  Marius  with  the  popiilares. 

The  Sulpician  Laws.  —  The  popular  leaders  were  uneasy  at  so 
great  military  authority  being  entrusted  to  a  leader  of  the  aristoc- 
racy ;  and  the  veteran  Marius,  whose  services  in  the  late  war  had 
not  added  greatly  to  his  reputation,  craved  new  opportunities  for 
distinction.  The  Social  War,  like  most  wars,  had  been  followed  by 
economic  disturbances  ;  and  a  young  leader  of  the  popular  party, 
Publius  Sulpicius  Rufus,  a  brilliant  orator  and  a  sincere  patriot, 
had  brought  forward  some  propositions  of  reform.^  These  meas- 
ures were  carried ;  and  Sulpicius  now  took  the  rash  step  of  bring- 

1  See  article  on  Liuitis  Cornelius  Sulla,  in  second  series  of  Freeman's 
Historical  Essays. 

2  Among  others,  to  remove  from  the  Senate  all  senators  who  were  deeply 
in  debt,  and  to  admit  the  new  citizens  to  the  tribes  on  an  equality  with  the 
old. 


178  SULLA. 

ing  in  another  ])r()])()sition,  —  to  take  the  command  from  Sulla  and 
give  it  to  Mariiis.  This  was  a  revolutionary  measure,  for  the 
pubhc  assemblies  had  never  been  accustomed  to  deal  with  such 
matters,  and  the  command  had  been  lawfully  given  to  Sulla.  Its 
passage  led  by  a  fatal  necessity  to  civil  war.  Sulla  refused  to 
obey,  marched  upon  Rome  and  captured  it,  put  Sulpicius  and 
many  of  his  associates  to  death,  and  promulgated  a  new  set  of 
laws  of  a  conservative  tendency.     Marius  escaped  capture. 

First  and  Second  Mithradatic  Wars.  —  Having  repealed  the 

laws  of  Sulpicius,  and  established  matters  in  Italy  upon 
B.C.  88.       an  aristocratic  basis,  Sulla  immediately  proceeded  to  the 

East,  and  in  a  war  of  three  years  brought  Mithradates 
to  terms,  forcing  him  to  surrender  all  his  conquests  in  Asia  Minor, 
and  to  pay  a  heavy  indemnity.  At  the  same  time  he  punished 
severely  the  adherents  of  Mithradates  and  the  agents  of  his 
massacres.      He   then  returned   to    Italy  in   B.C.   "^t^.      After   his 

departure  from  his  province,  there  was  a  brief  renewal 
B.C.  83-2.   of  hostilities  between  his  successor  Murena  and  King 

Mithradates,  which  is  known  as  the  Second  Mithradatic 
War.     Its  incidents  are  of  no  importance. 

Escape  of  Marius.  —  Marius  had  escaped  from  the  slaughter 
of  his  partisans,  and  making  his  way  along  the  coast,  concealed 
himself  in  the  marshes  of  Minturnae,  where  he  was  arrested  and 
thrown  in  prison.  The  town  executioner,  a  Cimbrian  slave,  was 
ordered  to  dispatch  him  in  prison ;  but  when  he  recognized  the 
conqueror  of  his  nation,  and  heard  him  ask,  in  a  stern  voice, 
"  Barest  thou  kill  Gains  Marius  ? "  he  fled  from  the  apartment, 
crying,  "  I  cannot  kill  (^aius  Marius  !  "  By  the  connivance  of  the 
magistrates  of  Minturnae,  Marius  again  escaped,  and  passed  over 
to  Carthage,  where,  as  is  said,  he  was  found  by  an  officer  of  the 
governor,  who  ordered  him  to  leave  the  province.  "  Return," 
said  Marius,  "  and  tell  him  that  thou  hast  seen  Gains  Marius  sit- 
ting an  exile  on  the  ruins  of  Carthage."  It  would  have  been  well 
for  his  memory  if  he  had  died  with  these  heroic  words  upon  his 
hps. 


MARIUS,    CINNA  AND    CARBO.  179 

Revolution  of  Cinna  and  Marius.  —  The  next  year,  87,  a 
counter-revolution  took  place  in  Rome.  The  two  consuls,  Octa- 
vius  and  Cinna,  were  of  opposite  parties,  and  their  dissension 
soon  came  to  an  open  rupture.  A  battle  was  fought  upon  the 
Forum,  in  which  Cinna,  the  champion  of  the  Marian  party,  was 
defeated  and  driven  from  the  city.  He  soon,  however,  gathered 
adherents  from  the  Italian  population,  called  Marius  back  from 
exile,  and  entered  the  city  in  triumph.  All  the  worst  quaUties  of 
Marius'  character  had  been  stimulated  by  the  disappointments 
and  disgraces  of  the  last  years,  and  he  entered  Rome  in  a  trans- 
port of  vindictive  fui^.  His  associate  Cinna,  a  patrician  of  base 
mould,  was  his  ready  agent,  and  the  victorious  party  commenced 
a  massacre  of  their  opponents,  which  continued  for  five  days  and 
five  nights.  The  first  victim  was  the  consul  Gn^eus  Octavius ; 
others  were  Lucius  Csesar,  the  commander  in  the  Social  War 
(p.  1 74)  ;  Quintus  Catulus,  the  colleague  of  Marius  in  the  victory 
over  the  Cimbri  (p.  169)  ;  and  Marcus  Antonius,  the  rival  of 
Lucius  Crassus  as  an  orator,  and,  since  the  death  of  Crassus,  with- 
out a  question  the  head  of  the  Roman  bar.  When  Marius  was 
entreated  to  spare  the  life  of  his  old  colleague  Catulus,  he  coldly 
answered,  "  He  must  die." 

Rule  of  Cinna  and  Carbo.  —  The  next  year  Marius  entered 
upon  his  seventh  consulship,  with  Cinna  as  his  colleague ;  but  his 
vital  powers  were  exhausted,  and  he  died  on  the  thirteenth  of 
January,  b.c.  86,  having  by  his  actions  of  the  last  few  weeks 
effaced  the  memory  of  his  great  services  against  Jugurtha  and  the 
Cimbri.  For  three  years  the  revolutionary  party  remained  in 
possession  of  the  government,  under  Cinna,  Carbo,  and  the  son  of 
Marius  j  it  was  then  overthrown  by  Sulla,  on  his  return  from  the 
East. 

Renewal  of  the  Civil  War.  —  In  the  year  b.c.  Z^)  Snlla  re- 
turned from  the  East,  full  of  honors,  and  marched  with  his  victo- 
rious army  against  his  enemies  in  the  city.  He  had  exhibited  great 
self-control  and  patriotism,  remaining  steadily  at  his  post  of  duty, 
and  carrying  on  the  wars  of  his  country,  while  his  enemies  were 


180  SULLA. 

running  riot  in  the  capital.  But  he  had  confidence  in  his  own 
resources,  and  on  his  side  was  the  memory  of  the  outrages  per- 
petrated by  his  opponents.  Upon  his  landing  at  Brundisium  he 
was  promptly  joined  by  Quintus  Metellus  Pius,  Marcus  Crassus,  and 
Gn?eus  Pompey,  —  young  men  who  afterwards  attained  great  dis- 
tinction, —  and  before  the  year  closed  his  cause  was  decidedly  in 

the  ascendant.  Early  in  the  following  year  the  consuls, 
B.C.  82.      Carbo  and  the  young  Marius,  were  obliged  to  evacuate 

Rome.  Carbo  proceeded  to  the  north  of  Italy,  where 
his  forces  gradually  fell  to  pieces.  Marius  made  his  head-quar- 
ters at  Praeneste,  and  a  last  desperate  struggle  was  made  under 
his  command. 

Battle  of  the  Colline  Gate. — Before  abandoning  Rome,  Marius 
had  ordered  another  massacre,  of  such  nobles  as  had  survived  the 
former  reign  of  terror.  In  this  massacre,  which  was  perpetrated 
by  the  prsetor  Damasippus,  the  most  illustrious  victim  was  Quintus 
Scaevola,  the  most  distinguished  lawyer  of  Rome,  the  consul  of 
B.C.  95  (p.  173),  and  the  founder  of  the  scientific  study  of  juris- 
prudence. The  struggle  reached  its  crisis  when  an  army  of  Sam- 
nites,  under  Pontius  Telesinus,  marched  upon  Rome  to  co-operate 
with  Marius,  and  encamped  in  front  of  the  Colline  Gate,  upon  the 
north  side  of  the  city.  The  memory  of  the  Samnite  and  Social 
wars  rankled  in  the  mind  of  the  leader,  and  "  he  called  out  to  his 
followers  that,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the  wolves  which  had  robbed 
Italy  of  freedom,  the  forest  in  which  they  harbored  must  be 
destroyed."  ^  Rome  was  to  be  burned.  But  Sulla  followed  close 
upon  him,  and  the  victory  at  the  Colline  Gate  saved  the  city  from 
destruction.     Prseneste  shortly  afterwards  surrendered. 

Sulla's  Proscriptions.  —  Sulla,  like  Marius,  stained  his  brilliant 
record  of  patriotic  services  by  vindictiveness  and  cruelty  in  his 
hour  of  triumph.  And  if  Sulla  was  inherently  a  greater  man  than 
his  rival,  and  showed  a  better  balanced  character  and  a  higher 
statesmanship,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  cold-blooded  atroci- 
ties of  his  victory  excite  even  greater  horror  than  the  massacres 

1  Mommsen. 


THE   DICTATORSHIP   OF  SULLA. 


181 


of  Marius.  He  introduced  the  policy  of  proscription.  Every 
morning  a  list  was  posted  {proscriptinn),  of  the  names  of  those 
whose  lives  were  forfeited,  and  who  might  be  put  to  death  by  any 
one  with  impunity.  As  the  property  of  the  proscribed  was  con- 
fiscated, the  proscription  was  an  invitation  to  crime,  very  ac- 
ceptable to  private  enemies,  or  to  those  who  hoped  to  buy  the 
estates  of  the  attainted  at  a  low  rate.  The  number  thus  put  to 
death  amounted  to  nearly  five  thousand,  and  the  amount  of 
confiscated  property  to  three  hundred  and  fifty  million  sesterces 
($17,500,000).  It  was  by  purchases  of  these  confiscated  estates 
that  Marcus  Crassus,  the  richest  Roman  of  his  time,  and  the 
pohtical  confederate  of  Caesar  and  Pompey  in  the  First  Trium- 
virate, built  up  his  immense  fortune. 


II.   The  Constitution  of  Sulla. 

Character  of  Sulla.  —  Sulla  was  now  master  of  Rome,  with  his 
legions  behind  him,  and  he  had  it  in  his  power  to  establish  a 
monarchy  on  the  ruins  of  the  re]3ublic.  But 
nothing  is  more  remarkable  about  this  remark- 
able man  than  his  disregard  of  vulgar  personal 
ambition,  at  the  same  time  that  he  displayed 
a  savage  hatred  of  his  personal  enemies  who 
were  also  his  political  antagonists.  In  his 
refusal  to  surrender  his  army  to  Marius,  when 
ordered  to  do  so  by  the  Sulpician  law  (p.  177), 
he  might  be  regarded  as  vindicating  that  prin- 
ciple of  the  constitution  which  placed  the  com- 
mand in  the  hands  of  the  consuls,  and  gave 
no  authority  over  it  to  the  popular  assembly. 
In  the  years  that  followed  he  remained 
steadily  at  his  work  in  the  East,  while  Cinna  was  massacring  his 
friends  in  Rome,  —  this  in  the  face  of  bitter  opposition  and  even 

1  This  bust,  in  the  Vatican,  has  been  named  Cicero,  which  is  certainly  in- 
correct;   Bernoulli  {^Romische  Ikonographie)  hokls  it  probably  for  Sulla. 


182  SULLA. 

personal  danger.  All  the  while  his  passions  had  been  burning 
fiercely,  and  when  at  last  he  had  Rome  in  his  power  he  took 
cruel  vengeance  upon  his  enemies,  even  causing  the  tomb  of 
Marius  to  be  broken  open,  and  his  ashes  to  be  thrown  into  the 
river. 

Sulla  made  Perpetual  Dictator.  —  Sulla's  temper  was  thoroughly 
conservative,  and  he  was  careful  to  respect  the  forms  of  the  con- 
stitution. Under  the  violent  shocks  of  the  civil  war,  the  machinery 
of  government  had,  as  we  may  say,  run  down.  The  consuls  of  82 
were  both  dead,  and  there  was  no  legal  authority  competent  to 
restore  order,  for  Sulla's  authority  as  pro-consul  would  cease  the 
moment  he  entered  the  city.  In  circumstances  like  these,  it  was, 
as  we  have  shown  (p.  20),  the  duty  of  the  patrician  senators,  in 
whom  resided  the  ultimate  sanction  of  the  constitution,  to  come 
together,  and  by  the  appointment  of  an  interrcx,  or  provisional 
chief  magistrate,  to  set  again  in  operation  the  wheels  of  govern- 
ment. Therefore  Lucius  Valerius  Flaccus,  a  patrician  of  ancient 
stock,  was  made  interrex,  and  on  his  proposition  Sulla  was  created 
perpetual  dictator,  with  complete  power  to  revise  the  constitution 
and  to  govern  the  state  until  the  new  order  of  things  should  be 
established. 

Restoration  of  Senatorial  Government.  —  Sulla's  plan,  con- 
sistently with  his  conservatism  of  opinion,  was,  so  far  as  possible 
in  the  changed  condition  of  things,  to  restore  the  system  of  gov- 
ernment which  had  in  former  days  carried  Rome  to  her  height  of 
prosperity  and  power,  —  the  Senate  possessing  supreme  authority 
and  exercising  control  over  the  magistrates  and  the  assemblies. 
The  Gracchi,  acting  upon  the  lines  marked  out  by  Flaminius,  had 
rudely  broken  with  this  traditional  order,  and  had  made  the  assem- 
blies, instead  of  the  Senate,  the  ruling  power  in  Rome.  The 
change  had  worked  no  advantage.  Bad  as  the  Senate  was  now, 
the  people  were  no  better ;  and  as  long  as  the  Itahans  were  pre- 
vented, by  their  distance  from  Rome  and  the  absence  of  repre- 
sentative machinery,  from  taking  any  active  part  in  the  govern- 
ment, it  was  no  doubt  safer  to  have  the  i)ower  in  tlie  hands  of  the 


THE   SENATE  AND  MAGISTRATES.  183 

oligarchy  than  of  the  mob.  The  misfortune  of  Rome  at  this  junc- 
ture was  that  there  survived  no  elements  of  a  healthy  free  govern- 
ment. Sulla's  aristocratic  reconstruction  was  perhaps  the  best 
framework  of  government  possible,  of  a  republican  type.  How 
completely  it  collapsed,  from  causes  inherent  in  the  state  of  so- 
ciety, we  shall  see.  f-\ 

The  Senate.  —  For  a  restoration  of  the  senatorial  government  '3' 
the  first  thing  necessary  was  a  restored  Senate.  It  is  easy  to  con- 
ceive how  the  Senate  had  suffered  in  numbers  and  in  character  by 
the  prosecutions,  massacres,  and  proscriptions  of  the  last  few  years. 
Of  the  experienced  statesmen  of  the  period  before  the  Civil  War 
hardly  one  survived ;  the  new  generation  of  public  men  entered 
upon  their  task  without  experience  or  example.  The  first  step  to 
the  restoration  of  the  Senate  was  the  election  of  about  three  hun- 
dred new  members,  chiefly  from  the  equestrian  order.  For  the 
future  supply  of  members  it  was  provided  that  every  person  elected 
to  the  qugestorship,  the  lowest  of  the  regular  magistracies,  should 
become  a  member  of  the  Senate  for  fife.  The  age  at  which  the 
quaestorship  could  be  held  was  thirty,  and  as  twenty  quaestors 
were  elected  every  year,  and  they  had  an  expectation  of  perhaps 
thirty  years  of  life  on  an  average,  it  follows  that  the  Senate  after 
this  time  averaged  between  five  and  six  hundred  members. 

The  Magistrates.  —  The  praetors  were  increased  in  number 
from  six  to  eight,  and  were  to  be  employed  exclusively  in  judicial 
functions,  two  having  the  administration  of  civil  cases,  the  others 
presiding  over  the  newly  organized  criminal  courts.  The  consuls 
were  also  confined  to  purely  civil  functions,  being  required  to 
remain,  during  their  term  of  office,  in  Italy,  where  no  exercise  of 
military  authority  was  allowed  except  on  extraordinary  occasions. 
Both  consuls  and  praetors,  after  their  terms  of  offlce  had  expired, 
went  into  the  provinces  as  governors.  The  office  of  censor  was 
tacitly  dropped. 

The  Tribunes  of  the  Plebs.  —  It  was  Sulla's  poHcy  to  reduce 
the  overgrown  power  of  the  tribunate.  The  holding  of  this  office 
was  made  a  disqualification  for  the  curule  offices,  and  the  tribunes 


184  SULLA. 

were  deprived  of  their  right  to  initiate  legislation,  except  by  the 
previous  authority  of  the  Senate.     This  was  a  wise  provision,  giv- 
ing to  Roman  legislation  some  of  the  advantages  which  we  derive 
from  our  modern  system  of  two  legislative  chambers.     Moreover, 
the  legislative  power  of  the  tribunes  was  the  principal  agency  for 
the   mischievous  work  of  demagogues.     For  these  very  reasons 
the  restoration  of  the  power  of  the  tribunes  immediately 
B.C.  70.      became  the  popular  demand,  and  in  only  about  ten  years 
Sulla's  restrictions  upon  it  were  abolished.     This  was  the 
only  material  point  in  which  his  legislation  was  short-lived. 
...  The  Permanent  Courts.  —  The  reorganization  of  the  system  of 
criminal  justice  was  one  of  the  most  important  of  Sulla's  reforms. 
The  court  of  Repetundae  (p.  148),  for  the  punishment  of  extor- 
tionate  and   oppressive   governors   of  the    provinces,  afforded  a 
model  for  this   reorganization.      One   or  two   other   courts    had 
already  been  added  to  that  of  Repetu?idae}  and  now  the  whole 
range  of  criminal  offences  was  arranged  in  groups  and  assigned  to 
permanent  courts  (^Quaestiones  perpeiuae),  composed  of  senators 
and  presided  over  by  the  several  praetors  and  other  officers.     The 
system  vested  was  a  clumsy  one  and  rested  upon  no  well-considered 
principles  of  criminal  jurisprudence ;  but  this  reform  at  any  rate 
removed  the  trial  of  offences  from  the  tumultuous  public  assem- 
blies, and  established  some  deliberation  and  order  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  criminal  justice.     Civil  cases  continued  to  be  tried  by 
the  two  principal  praetors,  urbanus  and  peregrinus. 
—    Permanent  Advantages  of   Sulla's  Constitution.  —  The  con- 
serv-ative  provisions  of  Sulla's  constitution  were  for  the  most  part 
permanent,  and  might  have  been  expected  to  work  material  advan- 
tage if  the  Roman  constitution  had  not  had  defects  incapable  of 
remedy,  and    if  the   governing   class   had    not    been  too  deeply 
corrupted  to  be  safely  trusted  with  power.     The  reorganization 
of  criminal  justice,  and  the  regulation  of  the  government  of  the 

1  A  court  fur  the  trial  of  murder  {de  sica7-iis  ct  vencjicis)  had  l^een  organized 
by  Gaius  Gracchus;  as  to  others  there  is  no  certainty.  The  whole  number  of 
courts  established  by  Sulla  was  somewhere  from  eight  to  twelve.  ' 


DEATH   OF  SULLA.  185 

provinces,  were  salutary  provisions,  which  continued  in  operation 
until  they  were  suspended  by  the  institutions  of  the  empire. 
But  it  was  too  late  for  any  reform  in  administration  to  check 
the  downward  course  which  was  carrying  the  republic  rapidly  to 
its  destruction. 

The  Aims  and  Methods  of  the  Rival  Parties.  —  Neither  party 
in  the  state  was  capable  of  working  any  real  and  permanent  reform. 
Sulla,  the  leader  of  the  aristocratic  and  conservative  party,  made 
salutary  changes  ;  but  they  were  wholly  on  the  surface,  improving 
the  machinery  of  administration,  but  not  touching  the  real  disease 
from  which  the  body  politic  was  suffering.  The  popular  party  saw 
deeper.  Its  ideal  was  higher,  its  policy  nobler  and  more  generous  ; 
but  it  was  thoroughly  discredited  by  the  misrule  of  Marius,  Cinna 
and  Carbo.  Julius  Caesar  was  the  first  Roman  statesman  who  pos- 
sessed at  once  broad  and  sound  statesmanship,  and  an  administra- 
tive capacity  equal  to  that  of  Sulla ;  and  when  he  rose  to  the 
leadership  of  the  state  the  republic  was  too  far  diseased  to  be 
capable  of  preservation. 

Abdication  and  Death  of  Sulla.  —  After  having  held  the  dictator- 
ship about  three  years,  and  reorganized  the  government,  as  he 
supposed,  on  a  permanent  basis,  Sulla  abdicated  his 
office,  and  retired  .to  his  villa  near  Puteoli,  where  the  B.C.  79. 
next  year  he  died  from  the  rupture  of  a  blood-vessel. 
But  hardly  had  he  retired  from  power  when  his  institutions  were 
subjected  to  a  critical  test.  The  consuls  of  78  were  Marcus 
^mihus  Lepidus,  a  member  of  the  popular  party,  and  Quintus 
Lutatius  Catulus,  son  of  the  victor  of  Vercellse.  The  attempt  of 
Lepidus  to  set  aside  Sulla's  constitution  led  to  a  short  civil  war, 
in  which  Lepidus  was  defeated,  and  shortly  after  died. 


186  POMPEY. 


CHAPTER    XV, 

POMPEY. 
I.   The  Roman  People. 

Changed  Condition  of  Society.  —  The  Civil  Wars  of  Marius  and 
Sulla  were,  as  we  may  say,  a  gulf,  separating  two  distinct  epochs. 
There  was  no  longer  among  the  Romans  any  sentiment  of  unity 
as  a  people,  any  community  of  interest,  hardly  any  genuine  pa- 
triotism or  public  spirit.  They  were  divided  into  two  opposing 
factions,  each  hating  the  other,  and  struggling  only  to  secure  its 
own  advantage.  It  is  not  that  there  was  no  virtue  or  morality 
left.  It  is  easy  to  exaggerate  the  vices  and  corruptions  of  any 
period  or  any  people,  and  it  is  certain  that  Rome  still  contained 
many  men  and  women  of  noble  and  exalted  character ;  but,  from 
the  intensity  of  party  spirit  and  the  defective  machinery  of  gov- 
ernment, the  best  elements  of  society  were  powerless  against  the 
influences  of  corruption.  Public  life  was  therefore  worse  than  pri- 
vate life,  and,  while  steadily  growing  worse,  dragged  down  private 
character  with  it. 

Structure  of  Society.  —  We  have  already  become  acquainted 
with  the  principal  obstacles  to  good  administration,  so  far  as 
these  consisted  in  the  organic  law,  or  framework  of  government,  — 
the  illogical  and  inefficient  distribution  of  powers  among  the  sev- 
eral magistrates  and  assemblies,  and  the  inadequacy  of  the  city 
type  of  constitution.  Even  more  fatal  to  a  free  government  was 
the  constitution  of  society,  as  it  existed  in  the  last  century  of  the 
republic.  The  people  of  the  early  republic  had  been  a  homoge- 
neous peasantry  :  patricians  and  plebeians,  divided  from  one  another 
by  rights  and  privileges,  were  alike  Italians  of  the  same  stock  and 
the  same  type.     Now  society  was  divided  between  rich  and  luxu- 


INDUSTRIAL   RELATIONS.  187 

rious  nobles  and  the  dependent  populace.  There  was  no  longer 
any  middle  class ;  the  peasantry  had  disappeared  as  a  political 
factor,  and  there  was  no  other  industrial  class  to  take  its  place. 

Industry  in  Rome.  —  Here  we  touch  upon  the  fatal  and  irre- 
mediable defect  of  ancient  society  —  the  absence  of  industry  as  a 
social  power,  a  necessary  consequence  of  slave  labor.  The  eco- 
nomic changes  through  which  Rome  had  passed  are  in  certain 
particulars  strikingly  like  those  of  modern  England  —  in  the  dis- 
appearance of  peasant  properties  and  the  building  up  of  a  great 
landed  aristocracy.  What  has  saved  England  from  the  fate  of 
Rome  has  been  the  absence  of  slavery  and  the  mar\^ellous  develop- 
ment of  new  forms  of  productive  industry,  the  great  manufacturing 
and  commercial  interests  of  modern  society.  In  ancient  times 
this  was  impossible.  Most  articles  of  household  necessity  were 
produced  by  the  labor  of  slaves;  manufactures,  as  a  distinct 
branch  of  industry,  did  not  exist.  With  commerce  it  was  differ- 
ent. The  great  commercial  republics,  like  Rhodes  and  Massilia, 
were  among  the  best  governed  of  the  states  of  antiquity,  and  the 
patricians  of  early  Rome  had  been  a  commercial  aristocracy.  But 
Rome  at  the  present  day  had  no  true  commerce,  if  by  commerce 
we  mean  a  free  exchange  of  products.  It  lived  upon  the  spoils 
of  conquered  nations,  and  its  only  large  industries  were  farming 
the  revenues,  carrying  on  speculative  operations  and  dealing  in 
money. 

The  Debtors.  —  In  the  century  which  we  have  reached,  as  in 
the  early  republic,  private  indebtedness  had  grown  to  vast  propor- 
tions, and  society  was  convulsed  by  contests  between  debtors  and 
creditors.  But  it  was  a  contest  of  a  wholly  different  character 
from  the  former.  The  debtors  of  early  Rome  were  peasants  who 
had  fallen  into  the  clutches  of  creditors  armed  with  the  oppressive 
powers  of  the  law.  For  the  relief  of  these,  laws  had  been  passed 
regulating  the  rate  of  interest,  and  the  oppressive  features  of  the 
law  of  debt  had  at  last  been  abolished  (p.  41).  The  debtors  of 
the  present  time  were  speculators  who  could  not  meet  their  engage- 
ments, and  aristocratic  youn^  men  who  had  squandered  their  pat- 


188  POMPEY. 

rimony ;  the  debts  were  not  incurred  for  the  benefit  of  honest 
industry,  or  the  rehef  of  distress,  but  to  furnish  means  for  extrava- 
gance, dissipation,  and  speculation. 

The  Demand  for  "  New  Accounts."  —  Nevertheless,  the  debtors 
made  themselves  out  to  be  an  oppressed  class,  and  appealed  for 
protection  to  the  sympathies  and  the  obsolete  laws  of  the  early 

republic.  Usurious  interest  had  been  prohibited  by  an 
B.O,  89.      old   law,  and  now  the    debtors    persuaded   the   prtetor 

Asellio  to  put  this  law  in  operation,  and  punish  the 
creditors  to  whom  they  had  been  paying  unlawful  rates.  The 
creditors  were  no  more  scrupulous  than  the  debtors  :  they  banded 
themselves  together  under  the  leadership  of  one  of  the  tribunes, 
and  attacked  the  praetor  and  murdered  him,  just  as  \e  was  assisting 
at  a  sacrifice  in  his  priestly  robes.  From  this  time  the  cry  of  the 
debtors  was  "new  accounts"  {novae  tabulae),  that  is,  a  general 
abolition  of  debts,  such  an  abolition  as,  in  whole  or  in  part,  had 
been  effected  by  the  laws  of  Solon  and  of  Licinius,  but  for  the  benefit 
of  a  wholly  different  class.  This  now  became  a  party  cry,  not  em- 
bodying any  principle  of  public  polity,  but  the  selfish  demands  of 
the  worst  and  most  dangerous  elements  of  society. 

Divorce.  —  Nothing  struck  such  fatal  blows  at  the  welfare  of 
society  as  the  increasing  frequency  of  divorce,  by  which  the  insti- 
tution of  the  family,  the  very  foundation  of  society  among  all  na- 
tions of  the  Aryan  race,  was  assailed  and  vitally  weakened.  Among 
the  R  imans  marriage  had  been  regarded  with  peculiar  reverence, 
and  family  relations  had  been  pure  and  rigorous.  By  the  usages 
of  primitive  society,  as  they  sur\dved  in  the  early  republic,  divorce 
was  freely  permitted  ;  but  such  was  the  strength  of  the  family  sen- 
timent and  the  purity  of  morals  that  the  power  was  very  rarely 

exercised  in  early  times.  The  first  instance  of  divorce 
B.C.  231.     is  said  to  have  been  in  the  time  of  the  Punic  wars.     But 

the  moral  check  which  had  been  sufficient  in  those  days 
wholly  failed  in  the  growing  license  and  immorality  of  the  present 
age,  and  divorce  was  now  an  every-day  occurrence.  Cato  divorced 
his  wife  in  order  to  accommodate  a  friend  who  wished   to  marry 


RELIGIOUS  FORMS  AND   BELIEFS.  189 

her.  Caesar  divorced  his  because  of  certain  gossip,  saying  that 
"  Caesar's  wife  must  be  above  suspicion."  Cicero  divorced  Ter- 
entia,  with  whom  he  had  Hved  through  a  long  Ufe  in  apparent  har- 
mony. Augustus  fell  in  love  with  the  wife  of  a  nobleman  and  took 
her  from  him  ;  he  afterwards,  in  order  to  secure  a  succession  to  the 
throne,  compelled  her  son  Tiberius  to  divorce  a  wife  to  whom  he 
was  much  attached,  and  married  him  to  his  dissolute  daughter 
JuHa,  to  the  misery  of  both  parties. 

Gladiatorial  Shows.  —  Another  cause  of  demoralization  was 
the  passion  for  gladiatorial  contests,  which  was  becoming  more 
and  more  the  leading  taste  among  the  Roman  people.  The 
Romans  were  not  originally  a  cruel  or  brutal  people,  but  they 
were  a  warlike  people,  and  early  acquired  a  fondness  for  contests 
which  exhibited  military  skill  and  prowess.  The  first  exhibition 
of  gladiators  was  at  a  funeral  celebration  in  the  first  year 
of  the  First  Punic  War.  From  this  time  the  number  and  B.C.  264. 
magnitude  of  the  contests  rapidly  increased.  Schools 
were  established  for  training  the  gladiators,  who  were  slaves  selected 
for  their  qualities  as  fighters ;  and  the  spectators  soon  ceased  to 
be  satisfied  with  exhibitions  of  skill,  but  demanded  bloodshed  and 
death.  Thus  the  populace  were  brutalized,  and  the  spectacle  of 
human  suffering  became  a  keen  source  of  enjoyment.  Fights  be- 
tween gladiators  were  not  enough  for  their  depraved  taste,  but  a 
new  zest  was  added  to  the  sight  by  the  introduction  of  savage  wild 
beasts  into  the  arena. 

Religion.  —  There  was  plenty  of  religious  sentiment  in  Rome, 
but  not  of  a  kind  to  be  of  much  value  in  the  promotion  of  morality. 
The  native  Roman  faith  held  its  ground  in  the  .rural  districts,  but 
in  the  city  its  temples  fell  into  neglect  and  ruin,  until  rebuilt  by 
Augustus.  The  popular  forms  of  worship  in  Rome  were  the  more 
showy  rites  of  the  oriental  religions  —  that  of  the  Great  Mother, 
already  described  (p.  129),  and  particularly  of  the  Egyptian  god- 
dess Isis,  whose  temples  were  thronged  with  women,  particularly  of 
the  lower  class,  but  whose  cult  was  associated  with  superstitions 
and  gross  indecencies. 


190  rOMPliV. 

The  Auguries.  —  One  branch  of  the  Roman  rehgion,  however, 
was  never  kept  up  with  more  care  and  assiduity  than  in  this 
age,  and  we  may  add,  was  never  more  devoid  of  reahty ;  that 
is,  the  Auguries,  the  organ  of  communication  between  the  state 
and  the  gods.  The  Romans  had  at  one  time  beheved  that 
through  the  auspices^  the  gods  expressed  their  will  to  the  magis- 
trates (p.  20)  ;  and  they  continued  now  to  pretend  to  the  same 
belief.  But  from  the  time  that  Publius  Claudius  had  thrown  the 
sacred  chickens  into  the  sea  (p.  108)  the  belief  in  the  auguries 
had  sunk  more  and  more  to  a  mere  form,  only  to  become  more 
and  more  essential  as  a  form.  By  their  power  of  interpreting  the 
auspices,  the  Augurs  —  a  board  of  fifteen  noblemen  —  had  little 
difficulty  in  controlling  the  action  of  magistrates  and  assemblies ; 
while  the  rule  of  augury,  that  the  assembly  must  disperse  if 
thunder  was  heard,  enabled  the  magistrate  to  break  up  an  assembly 
by  merely  announcing  that  he  intended  to  watch  for  signs  from 
heaven  —  for  it  stood  to  reason  that  what  he  sought  for  he  would 
find.  The  only  remedy  was  the  lamentable  one  of  prohibiting,  on 
certain  occasions,  the  will  of  the  gods  to  be  consulted. 

Greco-Roman  Religion.  —  Among  the  higher  classes  the  more 
dignified  and  elegant  gods  of  Greece  had  been  merged  in  thought 
into  those  of  Rome  in  such  a  way  that  the  Pantheon  now  con- 
sisted of  a  multitude  of  deities,  some  purely  Greek,  like  Apollo, 
some  purely  Roman,  like  Janus ;  but  for  the  most  part  an  incon- 
gruous combination  —  Roman  names,  as  Mercury,  Mars,  Minerva, 
associated  with  myths  and  attributes  which  belonged  only  to  the 
Grecian  Hermes,  Ares,  and  Athena.  The  worship  of  these  gods 
was  maintained  with  pomp  and  solemnity ;  but  it  had  no  reality 
in  the  belief  or  the  conscience  of  the  worshippers. 

Philosophy,  —  What  influence  there  was  to  counteract  vice  and 
inspire  to  a  better  life  came  from  the  study  of  the  Greek  philoso- 
phers.    But  even  here  the  good  was  by  no  means  unmixed.     The 

1  These  two  terms  designate  the  same  thing,  from  different  points  of  view; 
the  auspices  being  the  signs  by  which  the  will  of  the  gods  was  manifested, 
auguries  the  science  of  interpreting  them,  as  a  public  institution. 


PHILOSOPHY  AND    IJTERAl'URE.  191 

philosophy  of  F.picurus,  in  its  origin  a  lofty  speculative  system,  of 
healthy  and  tonic  power,  had  sunk  to  be  a  mere  systematizing  of 
pleasure,  although  its  poet  Lucretius,  the  noblest  in  tone  of  all 
the  Roman  poets,  still  represented  it  in  its  best  phase.  The  Stoic 
philosophy  was  its  chief  rival,  and  the  power  of  this  was  wholly 
good  and  ennobling,  for  it  appealed  to  the  best  quahties  of  human 
nature.  It  had  its  limitations ;  but  for  three  hundred  years  the 
Stoic  philosophy  was  the  healthiest  and  best  influence  in  Roman 
society.  A  third  school  of  philosophy,  the  Academic,  was  specu- 
lative and  sceptical  in  tone,  and  its  votaries  were  confined  to  a 
few  persons  of  intellectual  habits. 

Literature.  —  It  is  remarkable,  in  the  face  of  the  facts  here 
recorded,  that  at  just  this  time  literature  makes  great  advances. 
During  the  century  which  followed  the  Second  Punic  War  there 
is  almost  a  complete  dearth  of  original  literature  in  Rome.  In 
the  period  with  which  we  are  at  present  engaged  there  w^as  a 
throng  of  writers,  most  of  whose  writings,  to  be  sure,  were  either 
insignificant  or  have  perished,  but  who  prepared  the  way  for  the 
great  literature  of  the  generation  w^hich  followed.  Sulla  himself 
wrote  his  memoirs  ;  Quintus  Scaivola,  the  founder  of  scientific 
jurisprudence  (p.  i8o),  and  Lucius  Stilo,  the  founder  of  Roman 
philology,  lived  at  this  dme.  Above  all,  amid  the  turmoil  of  the 
civil  wars  and  the  collapse  of  society  which  followed,  there  was 
growing  up  that  group  of  writers  whose  works  have  cast  a  glory 
upon  the  closing  days  of  the  republic  —  Cicero,  the  greatest  orator 
and  philosophic  writer  of  Rome  ;  Lucretius,  its  noblest  poet,  and 
Catullus,  its  most  brilliant ;  Csesar,  a  model  of  military  narration  ; 
and  Sallust,  an  historian  of  great  and  graphic  power. 

II.   The  Conquest  of  the  East. 

The  War  with  Sertorius.  —  The  Civil  War  was,  after  all,  not 
completely  ended  by  the  defeat  and  death  of  Lepidus  (p.  185). 
The  Spanish  provinces  were  still  in  the  hands  of  Quintus  Sertorius, 
a  leader  of  the  Marian  party,  who  had  been  sent  thither  in  the 


192 


POMPEY. 


time  of  Cinna  to  take  command.  Sertorius  was  by  far  the  best 
man  of  his  party,  and  its  best  general  after  the  death  of  Marius ; 
he  had,  moreover,  a  power  of  personal  attraction  which  attached 
the  Spanish  population  warmly  to  him.  This  personal  attachment 
was  strengthened  by  his  practice  of  having  with  him  a  pet  fawn. 


POMPEY.     (From  a  Statue  in  the  Spada  Palace  at  Rome.) 


which  followed  him  everywhere,  and  which  the  superstitious  people 
believed  to  be  his  medium  of  intercourse  with  the  gods.  Under 
the  rule  of  Sertorius  Spain  was  wisely  and  justly  governed,  and 
general  after  general  was  sent  against  him  without  result. 


SER  TORTUS  AND   SP ART  AC  US.  193 

Gnaeus  Pompeius  Magnus. —At  last  the  government  sent 
against  Sertorius  its  ablest  officer,  the  young  Gnaeus  Pompey. 
He  was  the  son  of  a  commander  of  some  distinction  in  the  Social 
War,  and  had  himself  held  command  under  Cinna  and  Carbo. 
When  Sulla  landed  in  Italy  on  his  return  from  the  East, 
Pompey  was  one  of  the  first  to  join  him,  with  a  large  and  B.C.  82. 
well-organized  army.  He  was  in  consequence  peculiarly 
favored  and  trusted  by  Sulla,  who  bestowed  upon  him  the  surname 
Magnus,  the  Great.  His  sympathies  were  no  doubt  in  general 
with  the  conservative,  aristocratic  policy,  represented  by  Sulla. 
He  was,  however,  no  politician,  and  is  identified  with  no  large 
policy  of  statesmanship  ;  his  political  career  is  marked  with  strange 
inconsistencies  and  changes.  But  he  had  military  abilities  of  a 
high  order,  and  was  personally  a  humane  man,  less  stained  by 
crime  than  perhaps  any  of  his  contemporaries  of  equal  promi- 
nence. For  nearly  thirty  years  he  was  the  most  conspicuous 
personage  in  Rome. 

Death  of  Sertorius,  —  The  predecessor  of  Pompey  in  the  com- 
mand against  Sertorius  was  Quintus  Metellus  Pius,  son  of  Metellus 
Numidicus  (p.  167).  Metellus,  too,  was  a  man  of  more  than 
average  character  and  ability;  but  neither  he  nor  Pompey  was 
able  to  accomplish  anything  against  an  antagonist  who  was  at  once 
so  able  as  Sertorius,  and  possessed  such  an  ascendancy  over  the 
people  whom  he  governed.  But  although  Sertorius  was  loved  and 
trusted  by  the  Spaniards,  there  were  traitors  among  the  degenerate 
Romans  in  his  own  camp.  He  was  assassinated  at  a 
banquet  by  one  of  his  own  officers,  and  the  Spanish  B.C.  72. 
insurrection  speedily  collapsed. 

War  with  Spartacus.  —  While  Pompey  was  absent  in  Spain,  a 
formidable  uprising  of  slaves  had  occurred  in  Italy.  It  began 
among  the  gladiators  in  Capua.  These  were  slaves,  captives  in 
war  or  kidnapped  from  barbarous  nations,  and  trained  to  entertain 
the  Roman  populace  by  their  bloody  combats.  Under 
the  leadership  of  Spartacus,  a  Thracian  by  birth,  they  B.C.  73. 
escaped  from  the  gladiatorial  school  at  Capua,  ensconced 


194  rOMPE  Y. 

themselves  in  the  wild  recesses  of  Mount  Vesuvius,  and  held  their 
pursuers  at  bay.  They  were  joined  in  their  retreat  by  fugitive 
slaves  from  the  plantations,  and  soon  Spartacus  was  at  the  head  of 
a  powerful  army,  with  which  he  long  resisted  the  Roman  power.' 
But  it  was  not  in  the  nature  of  things  that  a  hastily  gathered  band 
of  slaves  should  hold  out  against  the  most  warlike  nation  in  his- 
tory. The  insurrection  soon  began  to  weaken,  and  after 
B.C.  71.  about  two  years  the  insurgents  were  defeated  and  dis- 
persed by  the  new  commander,  Crassus.  Some  scattered 
remnants  were  met  by  Pompey,  on  his  triumphant  return  from 
Spain,  and  by  cutting  them  to  pieces  he  added  to  his  laurels. 

Consulship  of  Pompey  and  Crassus.  —  For  the  next  year,  b.c. 
70,  the  two  successful  generals  were  elected  consuls,  and  the  year  is 
memorable  for  the  overthrow,  in  some  important  particulars,  of  the 
SuUan  constitution.  Marcus  Licinius  Crassus  was,  like  Pompey 
and  Metellus  Pius,  one  of  the  younger  generation  of  nobles,  who 
had  come  into  prominence  since  the  Civil  War ;  but  he  was  the  least 
reputable  of  his  class.  His  chief  ground  of  distinction  was  his 
wealth,  which  he  had  acquired  by  very  questionable  means  (p. 
181).  He  was  a  politician  of  a  sordid  type.  Like  Pompey,  he 
had  been  a  prominent  adherent  of  Sulla,  and  it  does  not  appear 
that  either  of  them  was  less  an  aristocrat  now  than  then ;  but  to 
favor  a  restoration  of  popular  privileges  was  at  this  time  the  road 
to  political  success. 

Democratic  Legislation.  —  The  reactionary  legislation  of  Pom- 
pey and  Crassus  consisted  of  three  principal  measures  :  First, 
the  power  of  the  tribunes  was  restored,  and  this  office  became 
again,  what  it  had  been  before  the  time  of  Sulla,  the  chief  instru- 
ment of  discord  and  sedition.  Secondly,  the  question  of  the 
criminal  courts,  which  had  been  the  pohtical  issue  most  hotly  con- 
tested, received  a  final  and  rational  settlement.  These  courts  were 
originally  composed  of  senators ;  Gains  Gracchus  had  given  them 
to  the  equestrian  order  (p.  163)  ;  Sulla  had  restored  them  to  the 
senators  (p.  184)  ;  now,  by  the  Aurelian  Law,  they  were  to  be 

1  Frusias,  by  Eckstein,  deals  with  the  story  of  Spartacus. 


THIRD   MITHRADATIC    WAR.  195 

divided  between  the  two  orders  :  that  is,  they  must  be  composed 
exclusively  of  wealthy  citizens  —  one-third  senators,  one-third 
officers  of  the  tribes,  and  one-third  selected  at  large  from  the 
equestrian  order.^  The  third  measure  was  the  restoration  of  the 
censorship.  This  magistracy  formed  no  part  of  Sulla's  scheme. 
He  had  given  its  financial  and  administrative  functions  to  the 
consuls,  and  had  made  regular  provision  for  admission  to  the 
Senate  by  election  to  magistracies,  while  its  third  power,  the  in- 
spection and  regulation  of  morals,  was  dropped.  This  office  was 
now  re-established. 

Third  Mithradatic  War.  —  Meantime  affairs  in  the  East  had 
again  become  threatening.^  The  war  with  Mithradates  broke  out 
again,  and  the  Roman  dominion  in  the  Mediterranean  was  seri- 
ously menaced  by  a  commonwealth  of  pirates.  The  war 
against  Mithradates  was  entrusted  to  Lucius  Licinius  B.C.  74. 
LucuUus,  a  typical  nobleman  of  the  time,  —  brave  and 
skilful  in  war,  rich  and  luxurious,  arrogant  to  the  degree  that  his 
troops  refused  to  obey  him.  He  gained  many  brilliant  victories, 
but  no  decisive  one,  as  he  had  not  the  moral  ascendency  to  con- 
quer a  peace. 

War  with  the  Pirates.  —  Even  more  formidable  at  the  moment 
was  the  piratical  state  which  had  its  headquarters  upon  the  rocky 
coast  of  Cilicia.  Mithradates  threatened  the  Roman  power  in 
Asia,  but  the  pirates  rendered  insecure  every  part  of  the  Medi- 
terranean, cutting  off  the  supplies  of  food  upon  which  Rome 
depended  for  sustenance,  and  even  kidnapping  Roman  magis- 
trates and  wealthy  merchants  from  the  coast  of  Italy,  and  holding 
them  for  ransom.  To  meet  the  emergency,  a  law  was  passed, 
giving  to  Pompey  extraordinary  powers  for  three  years  over  all  the 
coasts  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  thirty  miles  into  the  interior. 
This  law  broke  with  constitutional  usage,  both  in  the  manner  in 

1  The  census,  or  property  qualification,  of  the  equestrian  order  was  400,000 
sesterces  (=  ^20,000)  :  there  was  no  fixed  requirement  for  the  Senate,  until  the 
time  of  Augustus,  when  it  was  established  at  1,000,000  sesterces  (=  ^50,000). 

2  These  times  are  depicted  in  Two  Thousand  Years  Ago,  by  A.  J.  Church. 


196  rOMPR  Y. 

which  the  power  was  granted  (by  vote  of  the  people),  and  in  the 
extent  and  duration  of  the  power ;  but  the  safety  of  the  people  is 

the  highest  law,  and  the  result  justified  the  extraordinary 
B.C.  67.       measure.   In  less  than  fifty  days  Pompey  had  cleared  the 

sea  of  pirates,  captured  their  strongholds  in  Cilicia,  and 
brought  this  country  into  the  power  of  Rome.  It  was  organized 
as  the  province  of  Cilicia,  to  which  was  shortly  afterwards  annexed 
the  island  of  Cyprus. 

End  of  the  Mithradatic  War. — The  brilliant  successes  of  Pom- 
pey, contrasted  with  the  resultless  victories  of  Lucullus,  had,  as 
their  natural  effect,  the  passage  of  a  law  which  added  all  the  coun- 
tries of  the  East  to  Pompey's  previous  province.^  He  displayed 
the  same  energy  and  military  genius  in  this  broader  field  of  opera- 
tions as  in  the  campaign  against  the  pirates.  In  two  years  he  had 
overrun  the  territories  of  Mithradates,  and  driven  him  into  exile 

in  the  countries  north  of  the  Euxine,  where  he  was  put 
B.C.  65.       to  death  by  his  own  son.     His  kingdom  was  divided  : 

part  of  it  remaining  until  the  time  of  Nero  under  native 
princes,  and  the  most  important  part  being  annexed  to  the  Roman 
province  of  Bithynia.- 

Annexation  of  Syria.  —  From  the  conquest  of  Pontus  Pompey 
proceeded  to  regulate  the  affairs  of  Syria,  as  his  commission  war- 
ranted him.  The  mighty  empire  of  the  Seleucidae  had  shrunk, 
as  we  have  seen  (p.  135),  to  a  petty  kingdom  ;  and  in  these  nar- 
rower dominions  the  degenerate  sovereigns  of  the  dynasty  had  lost 
all  capacity  of  government.  The  country  was  in  a  state  of  utter 
anarchy,  and  it  was  a  welcome  boon  to  its  inhabitants  to  be  brought 
under  even  the  severe  and  extortionate  rule  of  Rome.  It  was 
made  into  the  province  of  Syria,  b.c.  64.  The  principal  resistance 
which  Pompey  met  was  among  the  Jews  ;  but  Jerusalem  was  cap- 
tured, and  the  conqueror  was  admitted  into  the  temple,  even  into 
the  Holy  of  Holies,  looking  with  wonder  upon  a  temple  and  a 

1  The  Manilian  Laza,  advocated  by  Cicero  in  a  well-known  speech. 

2  Bithynia,  in  Asia  Minor,  was  bequeathed  to  the  Roman  people  by  its  last 
king,  B.C.  74. 


CICERO. 


197 


ritual  with  no  statue  of  a  god.  Having  set  in  order  the  affairs  of 
the  East,  he  returned  home  with  a  higher  mihtary  reputation  than 
any  Roman  before  him,  except  Scipio,  had  gained. 

III.   The  First  Triumvirate. 


Cicero.  —  In  the  year  b.c.  dT^.,  the  consulship  was  held  by 
Marcus  Tullius  Cicero,^  the  most  illustrious  name  in  the  annals  of 
Roman  literature.  He  was,  like  Marius,  a  native  of  the  municipal 
town  of  Arpinum,  where  he  was 
born  B.C..  io6.  Like  many  ambi- 
tious young  men  from  the  country 
towns,  Cicero  established  himself 
at  Rome,  where  his  eloquence, 
learning,  integrity,  and  skill  as  an 
advocate  soon  placed  him  at  the 
head  of  the  Roman  bar.  He 
even  ventured  to  present  himself 
for  office  in  competition  with 
members  of  the  noble  families ; 
and,  notwithstanding  his  low  birth, 
he  achieved  the  almost  unprece- 
dented distinction  of  being  elected 
to  each  of  the  principal  offices  in 
succession  at  the  very  earliest  age 

permitted  by  law.^      It  was  in  his  praetorship   that  he 
argued  for  the  law  giving  Pompey  the  command  against 
Mithradates ;    and  as  soon  as  the  necessary  two  years'   interval 
had  elapsed,  he  was  elected  to  the  consulship. 

His  Writings.  —  Cicero  was  master  of  a  Latin  style  remark- 
able alike  for  vigor,  elegance,  and  purity ;  and  in  every  branch  of 
literature,  except  poetry,  which  he  essayed  with  no  brilliant  suc- 

1  His  life  by  Trollope  is  a  book  of  high  merit. 

2  The  qusestorship  could  be  held  at  30,  the  cedileship  at  37,  the  proetorship 
at  40,  and  the  consulship  at  43, 


CICERO.     (From   a  bust  at  Madrid.) 


B.C.  66. 


198  POMPE  Y. 

cess,  he  reached  the  highest  eminence.  His  orations  are  models 
of  eloquence  ;  his  correspondence,  very  voluminous,  is  genial  and 
entertaining,  and  crowded  with  information  and  illustration  as  to 
Roman  life ;  ^  his  rhetorical  writings  combine  the  ripe  fruits  of  his 
own  rhetorical  labors ;  and  his  philosophical  works  present,  in  a 
lucid  and  attractive  form,  without  much  originality,  but  with  high 
power  of  appreciation,  the  doctrines  of  the  Academic  or  Platonic 
school  of  philosophy  (p.  191),  to  which  he  was  attached. 

His  Public  Life. —  Cicero's  unquestionable  ability  in  adminis- 
tration secured  him,  as  we  have  seen,  rapid  success  in  public  life ; 
and  in  better  times,  with  a  higher  standard  of  political  morality, 
he  might  have  been  an  influential  and  distinguished  statesman. 
It  was  his  misfortune  that  his  best  qualities,  his  integrity  and 
patriotism,  had  no  scope  in  these  evil  times,  while  he  was  not 
sufficiently  daring  and  unscrupulous  to  earn  the  kind  of  success 
which  the  times  offered.  As  a  result,  his  reputation  with  posterity 
has  suffered  from  a  melancholy  absence  of  consistency  and  dis- 
interestedness, while  he  missed  the  rewards  which  his  own  genera- 
tion had  to  bestow.  His  life  after  his  consulship  was  spent  in 
fruitless  efforts  to  make  himself  a  place  in  political  life,  in  the  face 
of  contemptuous  rebuffs  from  the  practical  politicians.     Twice  in 

his  life  he  rose  above  the  standard  of  the  self-seeking 
B.C.  82.  pohtician,  —  at  the  very  beginning,  when  he  boldly  defied 
B.C.  43.      the  creatures  of  the  tyrant  Sulla,-  and  at  the  end,  when  he 

led  the  Senate  in  opposition  to  the  schemes  of  Mark 
Antony.  His  efforts  were  defeated  by  the  perfidy  of  the  young 
Octavian,  and  he  surrendered  his  life  with  a  dignity  and  nobility 
which  had  been  wanting  in  the  greater  part  of  his  career. 

Conspiracy  of  Catiline.  — The  year  of  Cicero's  consulship  was 
marked  by  an  event  very  significant  of  the  times,  —  the  con- 
spiracy of  Lucius   Sergius   Catilina^  to  take    possession    of  the 

^  Read  Miss  Preston's  charming  papers  upon  Cicero's  life,  as  exhibited  in 
his  letters,  in  the  Atlantic  Mo7ithly  for  1888  and  1889. 

2  This  was  in  his  speech  for  Roscius  of  Ameria. 

^  Catiline  is  defended  by  Professor  Beesly  in  Catiline,  Clodius^  and  Tibe- 
rius.    Herbert's  Roman  Traitor  depicts  this  period. 


CA  TILINE.  199 

government.  Catiline  was  a  young  patrician  of  brilliant  abilities 
and  great  physical  powers,  but  debauched  life,  over  head  and  ears 
in  debt,  like  so  many  of  his  class,  from  which  he  saw  no  way  to 
extricate  himself  but  by  throwing  society  and  government  into 
confusion,  with  the  expectation  that  he  would  be  able  to  seize  the 
power  into  his  own  hands.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Catiline 
himself  had  any  plans  of  reform,  or  any  object  but  the  gratification 
of  his  own  passions  and  ambition ;  but  it  is  beheved  that  Gains 
Julius  Caesar,  another  young  patrician,  of  equally  dissolute  life, 
and  equally  overwhelmed  with  debt,  was  associated  with  him. 
And  Caesar,  with  all  these  faults,  was  humane  and  clear-sighted, 
and  perhaps  already  cherished  enlightened  plans  for  the  re-organi- 
zation of  the  state. 

The  Conspiracy.  —  It  was  Catiline's  intention  to  gain  the  con- 
sulship, and  use  the  authority  of  this  office  in  furtherance  of  his 
plans.  When  defeated  by  Cicero,  he  determined  to  obtain  by 
force  what  he  had  failed  to  secure  by  lawful  means.  The  con- 
spirators organized  a  secret  association,  composed  of  discontented 
men  of  various  classes  in  all  parts  of  Italy ;  and  when  the  autumn 
approached  one  of  their  adherents,  Marcus  Manlius,  set  up  his 
standard  at  Fsesulae  {Fiesole),  in  northern  Etruria,  and  gathered 
about  him  a  considerable  force,  part  a  rabble,  part  well-trained 
soldiers.  For  some  time  it  was  not  known  with  certainty,  although 
it  was  suspected,  that  this  army  was  in  league  with  the  conspirators. 

Suppression  of  the  Conspiracy.  —  The  conspirators  within  the 
city  were  planning,  in  secret  meetings,  to  excite  an  uprising,  mas- 
sacre the  magistrates  and  leading  citizens,  seize  the  government, 
and  then  unite  themselves  with  the  army  in  Etruria.  But  the 
watchful  consul  outwitted  them.  By  his  secret  emissaries  he 
informed  himself  of  all  their  movements ;  and  just  as  the  time 
agreed  upon  for  the  outbreak  was  approaching,  he  made  their 
plans  known  to  the  public.  Catiline  left  the  city,  and  united  with 
the  insurgents  under  Manlius.  His  accomplices  were  then  ar- 
rested, and  put  to  death.  The  suppression  of  the  conspiracy 
within   the  city  was  speedily  followed,  in   January  of  the  next 


200  POMPE  V. 

B.C.  62.      year,  by  the   defeat  of  the  insurgent  army  in  Etruria. 

In  this  battle  CatiHne  himself  perished. 
The  Coalition  of  Party  Leaders.  —  Pompey  returned  to  Rome 
in  the  year  6i  B.C.,  and  celebrated  a  magnificent  triumph  for  his 
various  victories  and  conquests.  The  triumphal  celebration  lasted 
two  days.  He  was  now  at  the  height  of  his  glory ;  and  there  was 
no  place  of  greater  dignity  or  power  to  which,  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  Roman  politics,  he  could  rise.  He  was  anxious,  how- 
ever, to  have  the  regulations  which  he  had  made  in  the  East  con- 
firmed by  lawful  authority;  and  with  this  intention  he  entered 
into  a  coalition  with  the  two  most  prominent  political  leaders, 
each  of  the  three  agreeing  to  advance  the  pohtical  interests  of  the 

others.  This  coalition,  or  "  ring,"  is  known  as  the  Firs^ 
B.C,  60.      Triumvirate^  an  incorrect  use  of  the  term,  inasmuch  as 

a  triumvirate  was  properly  a  legal  commission  or  board 
of  three  men,  while  the  agreement  between  Pompey,  Caesar,  and 
Crassus  was  a  purely  personal  arrangement,  with  no  legal  character 
and  no  binding  force. 

Crassus  and  Caesar. — The  associates  of  Pompey  in  this  coali- 
tion were  Publius  Licinius  Crassus  and  Gains  Julius  Caesar.  Cras- 
sus we  have  already  met,  a  man  of  noble  family,  who  had 
broken  up  the  army  of  Spartacus,  (p.  193),  and  had  held  the 
consulship  with  Pompey  (p.  194).  He,  as  wpll  as  C?esar,  was 
suspected,  and  probably  with  justice,  of  complicity  in  the  plots 
of  Catiline.  Caesar  was  a  younger  man,  and  a  man  of  far  greater 
ability  and  stronger  character  than  either  of  his  confederates, 
although  his  abilities  were  not  yet  fully  known.  He  was  of  a 
patrician  family,  but  was  connected  by  marriage  with  Marius,  and 
had  himself  married  a  daughter  of  Cinna,  whom  he  refused  to 
divorce  at  the  command  of  Sulla.  The  dictator  had  with  difficulty 
been  induced  to  pardon  him  for  this  obstinacy,  saying  to  his  friends 
that  there  was  many  a  Marius  in  that  young  man.  Caesar  lived 
the  dissolute  and  extravagant  life  of  young  men  of  his  class, 
and  seems  to  have  looked  to  the  "  new  accounts  "  promised  by 
Catiline's  revolution  as  the  only  escape   from  his  overwhelming 


CAESAR.  201 

indebtedness.      The  next  year  he  held  the  praetorship,      B.C.  62. 
and  the  year  following  went  to  further  Spain  as  governor, 
returning  from  thence  in  the  year  60  in  season  to  enter  into  the 
coalition  with  Pompey  and  Crassus. 

Caesar's  Consulship.  —  In  the  bargain  now  made  Pompey  con- 
tributed his  military  reputation,  Crassus  his  wealth,  as  the  richest 
Roman,  and  Caesar  his  ability  and  influence  as  a  political  leader. 
The  three  influences  united  were  irresistible.  Caesar  was  elected 
consul  for  the  year  59,  and  a  popular  vote  gave  him,  as  proconsul,  the 
government  of  the  two  provinces  of  Cisalpine  Gaul  and  Illyricum 
for  five  years,  and  to  these  the  Senate  added  Transalpine  or  Narbon- 
nese  Gaul.  Pompey's  arrangements  in  the  East  were  legally  con- 
firmed, and  the  popular  leaders  who  had  supported  Caesar  received 
their  pay  in  being  allowed  to  send  their  enemy  Cicero  into  exile. 

Banishment  of  Cicero.  —  The  demagogue  Pubhus  Clodius  was 
a  member  of  the  patrician  family  of  the  Claudii,  who  had  suffered 
himself  to  be  made  a  plebeian,  in  order  that  he  might  hold  the 
office  of  tribune  of  the  plebs.  He  was  a  bitter  enemy  of  Cicero, 
and,  with  Caesar's  connivance,  carried  a  law  which  declared  the 
banishment  of  any  person  who  had  put  to  death  a  Roman  citizen 
without  trial.  This  Cicero  had  done  in  the  case  of  Catiline's 
accomplices.  He  went  into  exile  therefore,  with  piteous  and  un- 
manly lamentations  ;  his  house  was  torn  down  in  his  absence,  and 
the  spot  on  which  it  had  stood  was  consecrated.  It  was  not  for 
long,  however.  A  reaction  followed,  and  two  years  later 
he  was  recalled  with  great  honor,  and  was  recompensed  B.C.  57. 
for  his  losses  from  the  public  treasury. 

The  Conference  of  Luca.  —  The  year  following  his 
consulship,  Caesar  took  command  in  his  provinces,  and      b,C,  58. 
commenced  a  series  of  military  operations  wiiich  will  be 
narrated  in  the  next  chapter.     But  he  soon  found  that  the  five 
years  allotted  to  him  would  be  insufficient  for  completing  the 
work  which  he  had  undertaken,  and  as  the  end  of  the  term  ap- 
proached a  conference  of  the    three    confederates  was 
held  at    Luca,  at  which   there  were  present  some  two      B.C.  56. 


202  POMPE  Y. 

hundred  senators,  and  so  many  of  the  higher  magistrates  that 
there  were  counted  one  hundred  and  twenty  fasces  upon  the 
ground.^  At  this  meeting  it  was  agreed  that  Pompey 
B.C.  55.  and  Crassus  should  hold  the  consulship  for  the  next  year, 
and  should  then  receive  each  a  command  for  five  years 
—  Pompey  in  Spain,  Crassus  in  Syria ;  further,  that  Caesar's  com- 
mand in  the  Gauls  should  be  extended  for  another  term  of  five 
years.     These  agreements  were  all  carried  out  by  law. 

Pompey  in  Italy.  —  Pompey  did  not  go  to  his  province,  how- 
ever, but  remained  in  the  neighborhood  of  Rome,  watching  the 
political  movements  in  the  city,  and  administering  his  government 
through  legafi,  or  deputies,  —  a  method  adopted  afterwards  by  the 
emperors.  The  alliance  between  him  and  Caesar  had  been  ce- 
mented by  his  marriage  to  Julia,  Caesar's  daughter ;  but 
B.C.  54.  the  death  of  Julia  the  next  year  dissolved  the  alliance, 
and  gradually  the  two  confederates  passed  through  the 
stages  of  coolness  and  unfriendliness  to  that  of  open  enmity. 

The  Parthian  Empire.  —  While  Pompey  remained  in  Italy, 
Crassus  proceeded  to  the  East,  hoping  there  to  rival  the  exploits 
of  Caesar  in  the  West.  This  province  of  Syria  bordered  upon  the 
great  Parthian  empire,  which  now  divided  the  world  with  that  of 
Rome.  Parthia,  the  mountain  region  southeast  of  the  Caspian 
Sea,  had  achieved  its  independence  about  the  middle  of  the  third 
century  before  Christ  (p.  132)  ;  about  a  century  later  (p.  135) 
Mithradates  the  Great  had  converted  his  petty  kingdom  into  a 
powerful  empire,  which  stretched  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Indus, 
thus  inheriting  the  glories  of  the  Persian  and  Macedonian  empires. 
Crassus  in  the  East.  —  A  revolution  in  Parthia,  which  made 
Orodes  king  in  place  of  his  brother  Mithradates  III.,  and  was 
followed  by  the  murder  of  Mithradates,  gave  Crassus  a  pretext 
for  intervening  in  the  affairs  of  the  East.  Impatient  to  gather 
the  treasures  of  the  Orient,  as  well  as  the  laurels  which  he  be- 

1  The  consul  was  attended  by  twelve  lictors,  each  carrying  fasces  or  bundles 
of  rods,  the  proetor  by  two ;  but  the  prcetor  or  pro-prcetor  who  governed  a 
province  had  six. 


ROMAN  LITERATURE.  203 

lieved  were  awaiting  him,  Crassus  left  Rome  even  be-  B.C.  55. 
fore  the  year  of  his  consulship  had  expired.  But  once 
arrived  in  his  province,  the  gold  seems  to  have  attracted  him  more 
than  the  glory  :  he  dallied  through  the  year,  adding  new  sums  to 
his  enormous  fortune,  and  it  was  not  until  the  year  53  that  he 
crossed  the  Euphrates.  Then,  while  traversing  the  desert  under 
the  guidance  of  a  pretended  ally,  he  was  suddenly  betrayed  into 
an  ambuscade.  .  His  army  was  surrounded  by  swarms  of  cavalry, 
armed  with  bows  and  pikes,  against  whom  his  heavy-armed  legions 
contended  in  vain.  His  army  was  cut  to  pieces,  and  shortly  after 
Crassus  himself  lost  his  life.  This  disastrous  battle  was  fought  a 
few  miles  from  Carrhae. 

The  Poets :  Lucretius.  —  During  the  period  which  we  have 
just  traversed,  Roman  literature  was  made  illustrious  by  perhaps 
the  two  most  original  of  its  poets,  and  two  of  its  best  historians. 
Titus  Lucretius  Carus,  while  inferior  to  Virgil  in  grace  and  finish, 
far  surpassed  him  in  originality  and  subhmity.  If  he  had  chosen 
a  more  popular  theme,  it  may  be  believed  that  he  would  easily 
have  ranked  as  the  greatest  of  Roman  poets ;  but  he  chose  to 
elucidate  the  Epicurean  system  of  philosophy,  so  that  a  large  part 
of  his  poem  is  occupied  with  curious  and  abstruse  discussions, 
to  which  the  poetic  character  is  wholly  wanting.  Many  of  his  doc- 
trines come  very  near  to  the  modern  theory  of  evolution.  Even 
the  philosophical  portions,  however,  are  often  rich  with  beauties, 
and  his  introductions  and  digressions  mark  the  highest  point  which 
Roman  poetry  reached. 

Catullus,  •- —  Quintus  Valerius  Catullus  was  as  distinguished  for 
grace  and  poetic  fancy  as  Lucretius  for  sublimity.  His  works, 
many  of  them  of  exquisite  beauty,  occupy  a  very  moderate  space. 
Among  them  are  some  in  which  he  attacks  Caesar  with  great 
vehemence  and  scurrihty. 

The  Historians :  Sallust.  —  Gains  Sallustius  Crispus  ranks,  for 
vigor  and  picturesqueness  of  narration  and  powerful  dehneation  of 
motives,  among  the  greatest  historians.  He  was,  like  most  of  the 
ancient  historians,  wholly  devoid  of  the  critical  faculty,  and  his 


204  POMPE  V. 

descriptions  of  military  campaigns  and  localities  are  almost  worth- 
less. But  the  insight  which  he  gives  into  the  poUtics  of  Rome  is 
invaluable,  and  to  him  we  owe  our  most  complete  knowledge  of 
the  war  with  Jugurtha  and  the  conspiracy  of  Catiline.  His  prin- 
cipal work,  which  would  have  been  of  priceless  value  in  narrating 
the  history  of  his  own  time,  is  lost,  except  for  a  few  fragments. 
—^Ccssar.  —  A  complete  contrast  to  Sallust  was  Julius  Caesar. 
Caesar's  account  of  his  wars  in  Gaul  —  the  ''Commentaries"  — 
is  concise  and  dry,  wholly  lacking  in  the  liveliness  and  passion 
of  Sallust ;  but  in  its  clearness  and  exactness  it  is  a  model  of 
mihtary  narration,  and  contains  valuable  information  upon  the 
nature  of  the  country,  its  inhabitants,  manners  and  customs 
and  institutions.  Without  making  any  parade  of  philosophical 
analysis,  Caesar  nevertheless  has  the  intuitive  insight  of  a  man  of 
genius  into  the  connection  of  events  with  one  another,  and  the 
relations  of  cause  and  effect.  In  his  account  of  the  Civil  War,  in 
v;hich  personal  and  political  passions  were  violently  excited,  he 
loses  the  impersonal  coolness  of  his  earlier  work  ;  but  even  here 
he  possesses  the  same  great  quahdes  as  an  historian.  It  must  be 
added,  that  when  he  is  telling  the  story  of  his  own  actions,  he 
sometimes  passes  lightly  over  his  own  shortcomings,  whether 
moral  offences  or  military  blunders.  In  general,  however,  he  is 
eminently  fair  and  impartial. 


GAUL.  205 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

C^SAR. 
I.     The  Conquest  of  Gaul. 

The  Province  of  Narbonnese  Gaul.  —  Gaul,  Gallia,  was  the 
name  given  by  the  ancients  to  that  country  which  extended  from 
the  Pyrenees  to  the  Alps  and  Rhine,  embracing  the  modern  France 
and  Belgium,  with  part  of  Holland  and  Switzerland,  and  a  small 
portion  of  Germany.  The  southwestern  part  was  inhabited  by  Aqui- 
tanians,  a  people  of  the  same  race  as  the  Iberians  of  Spain,  repre- 
sented by  the  modern  Basques  ^ ;  in  the  north  some  German  tribes 
had  crossed  the  Rhine ;  but  with  these  exceptions  the  inhabitants 
were  of  the  Celtic  race.  We  have  seen  (p.  167)  that,  shortly  after 
the  time  of  Gaius  Gracchus,  the  Romans  had  taken  possession  of 
all  the  territory  between  the  Pyrenees  and  the  Alps,  except  that 
which  belonged  to  the  Greek  republic  of  Massilia,  and  had 
founded  the  colony  of  Narbo,  from  which  the  province  had  its 
name,  Narbonensis.  West  of  the  Rhone  the  province  was  sepa- 
rated from  free  Gaul  by  the  Cevennes  Mountains ;  east  of  these 
mountains  the  Rhone  and  its  tributary,  the  Arar  {Saoiie),  afforded 
a  direct  passage  into  the  heart  of  Europe  (p.  2).  It  was  by  this 
natural  route  that  Caesar,  the  new  governor  of  Gaul,  advanced 
in  his  schemes  of  conquest. 

The  Gauls. — The  Gauls  had  reached  a  tolerably  advanced 
stage  of  civilization,  but  their  form  of  government  was  still  the 
primitive  one  of  the  tribe,  an  outgrowth  of  the  family  (p.  18). 
There  were  about  sixty  of  these  tribes  among  the  free  Gauls.  Their 
government  was  aristocratic,  and  they  were  divided  into  factions 

1  The  Basques  are  a  people  who  inhabit  a  small  mountain  district  at  the  head 
of  the  Bay  of  Biscay.     They  are  not  of  Aryan  race. 


206  CESAR. 

bitterly  hostile  to  one  another,  —  tribe  opposed  to  tribe,  and  Ac- 
tions within  the  tribes.  It  was  at  all  times  the  policy  of  the 
Romans  to  attach  to  themselves  one  party  in  any  country  where 
they  wished  to  obtain  influence ;  and  finding  that  two  neighbor- 
ing tribes,  adjoining  the  province,  were  arrayed  against  each  other, 
they  allied  themselves  with  the  y^duans,  in  the  modern  Burgundy, 
against  the  Sequanians,  who  lived  east  of  the  ^Eduans,  separated 
from  them  by  the  river  Saone.^  The  region  of  these  two  tribes 
upon  the  river  Saone  was,  as  we  have  seen,  the  natural  entrance 
to  Gaul. 

The  Helvetian  Migration.  —  It  was  not  difficult  for  any  Roman 
governor  who  wished  to  interfere  with  the  affairs  of  some  foreign 
nation  to  find  a  pretext.  In  the  present  case  it  was  the  resdess- 
hess  of  the  Helvetians,  who  inhabited  modern  Switzerland,  just  east 
of  the  Sequanians.  The  Helvetians,  dissatisfied  with  their  rugged 
and  limited  territories,  proposed  to  migrate  in  a  body  across  the 
country  to  the  shores  of  the  Bay  of  Biscay.  This  they  undertook 
in  alliance  with  the  Sequanians,  their  nearest  neighbors,  through 
whose  territories  they  received  permission  to  pass.  The  ^duans 
of  course  objected,  and  Caesar  alleged  that,  although  their  pro- 
posed course  was  north  of  the  Cevennes,  wholly  outside  of  his 
jurisdiction,  yet  their  new  locality  upon  the  Bay  of  Biscay  might 
be  a  menace  to  the  colony  of  Narbo ;  he  consequendy  marched 
against  the  Helvetians,  defeated  them  in  a  bloody  batde,  and 
obliged  them  to  return  to  the  homes  which  they  had 
B.C.  58.      abandoned. 

Expulsion  of  the  Germans.  —  Caesar's  next  enterprise, 
the  same  year,  was  one  of  extreme  interest  and  historical  impor- 
tance. A  German  king,  Ariovistus,  with  his  followers,  had  crossed 
the  Rhine  to  assist  the  Sequanians  in  their  feud  with  the  ^duans, 
and  had  settled  forcibly  in  their  territories.  This  was  another 
chapter  in  the  great  German  migration  of  which  we  have  already 
spoken  (p.  i68).  The  Cimbri  and  Teutones  had  been  cut  to  pieces 
by  Marius ;  but  in  the  north  of  Gaul  the  Germans  had  obtained 

^  This  was  the  modern  province  of  Franche  Comte. 


DEFEAT   OE  A  RIO  VIST  US. 


207 


a  foothold,  and  now  the  settlement  of  x^riovistus  was  but  an 
advance  guard  of  the  hordes  that  were  pressing  forward  to  occupy 
the  rich  fields  of  Gaul.  The  defeat  of  Ariovistus  placed  a  decisive 
check  upon  this  migration,  and  was  therefore  an  event  of  great 
moment  in  the  history  of  the  world.  The  onward  movement  of 
the  Germans  was  arrested  by  this  defeat ;  and  it  was  held  in  check 


ROMAN    RIDER    AND    SUEVE, 


for  nearly  five  hundred  years.  Then,  when  the  Germans  had 
grown  stronger  and  the  Romans  weaker,  the  Teutonic  tribes  swept 
in  an  irresistible  current  over  the  provinces  of  the  Empire, 

Caesar's  Visits  to  Britain.  —  Csesar  continued  in  Gaul  for  eight 
years,  and  reduced  the   entire    country  to    submission. 
In  the  fourth  year  and  again  in  the  fifth,  he  passed  over  B.C.  55, 54. 


208  CALSAR. 

to  Britain,  an  island  until  then  known  to  the  Romans  only  by 
the  reports  of  chance  travellers  and  traders.  His  visits  to  Brit- 
ain were  only  reconnoissances,  perhaps  with  a  view  to  a  possi- 
ble conquest  in  the  future,  but  he  never  had  the  opportunity  to 
follow  them  up ;  and  it  was  nearly  a  hundred  years 
A.D.  43.  before  Britain  was  formally  reduced  to  a  province.  As 
is  natural,  in  so  short  and  incomplete  an  expedition,  the 
account  which  Caesar  gives  of  Britain  is  brief  and  incomplete. 

Caesar  in  Germany.  —  He  visited  Germany,  as  well  as  Britain, 
and  has  given  us  the  earliest  and  most  authentic  information  which 
we  possess  with  regard  to  the  country  and  its  inhabitants.  Al- 
though brief,  it  is  remarkable  for  accuracy  and  lucidity,  —  a  model 
of  vigorous  and  condensed  statement.  His  natural  history  is, 
however,  of  less  value  than  his  account  of  institutions.  The  war 
between  the  Roman  empire  and  the  German  tribes,  commenced 
by  Ccxsar,  was  kept  up  with  hardly  an  interval  until  the  end  of  the 
Roman  I^]mpire  of  the  West. 

Revolt  of  Vercingetorix.  —  At  the  close  of  his  sixth  campaign 
C^sar  appeared  to  have  completely  accomplished  his  task,  and  to 
have  established  the  Roman  dominion  from  the  Pyrenees 
B,C.  52.  to  the  Rhine.  But  the  next  year  he  was  confronted  by 
a  formidable  insurrection  under  the  Arvernian  chief, 
Vercingetorix,  which  soon  embraced  nearly  all  the  tribes  of  Gaul, 
even  the  ^duans,  formerly  the  stanchest  friends  of  Rome. 
Many  times  during  this  campaign  the  Roman  cause  seemed  irre- 
trievably lost ;  but  Caesar,  often  rash  and  inconsiderate  in  plunging 
into  difficulties,  was  unsurpassed  in  fertility  of  resources  and  in- 
domitable resolution.  These  qualities  were  never  more  brilliantly 
displayed  than  in  the  war  with  Vercingetorix. 

Siege  of  Alesia.  —  The  campaign  culminated  in  the  siege  of 
Alesia,  an  almost  impregnable  fortress  on  the  summit  of  a  steep 
hill,  where  Csesar  succeeded  in  shutting  up  his  antagonists  within  a 
continuous  line  of  works.  The  city  was  converted  into  a  fortress, 
and  all  non-combatants  were  relentlessly  thrust  out,  where  they 
perished  miserably  between  the  contending  forces.     An  immense 


CONQUEST   OF  GAUL.  209 

army  was  sent  to  the  succor  of  the  besieged ;  and  it  seemed  for  a 
moment  that  it  would  succeed  in  raising  the  siege,  and  that  the 
work  of  seven  years  would  be  brought  to  nought.  But  by  a  sudden 
and  well-directed  attack  the  relieving  army  was  defeated  and  scat- 
tered, and  the  fortress  soon  fell  into  Caesar's  hands.  Its  heroic 
commander,  Vercingetorix,  was  kept  in  custody  for  five  years,  to  be 
exhibited  in  Caesar's  triumphal  procession,  and  was  then  beheaded. 

Conquest  of  Gaul.  —  All  resistance  was  soon  at  an  end,  and  the 
conqueror  held  his  victorious  armies  ready  for  the  civil  contest 
which  was  evidently  approaching.  The  newly  conquered  territory 
was  divided  into  three  districts  for  financial  and  administrative 
purposes,  which  were  afterwards  regularly  organized  as  independent 
provinces.  These  districts  were  Belgica  in  the  north,  Aquitania 
in  the  southwest,  and  Liigdunensis  in  the  centre.  The  latter  took 
its  name  from  the  city  of  Lugdunum  {Lyons) ,  shortly  afterwards 
founded  at  the  junction  of  the  Rhone  and  Saone,  the  most  impor- 
tant natural  centre  in  Gaul.  This  became  the  seat  of  administra- 
tion of  the  three  provinces,  which  for  the  present  were  known  as 
the  Three  Gauls  {Tres  Gallice),  and  placed  under  one  governor. 

Importance  of  the  Conquest.  —  The  conquest  of  Gaul  was  per- 
haps the  most  important  which  the  Romans  had  yet  made  outside 
of  their  natural  boundaries.  It  was  not  a  large  source  of  revenue, 
and  that  was  well ;  for  the  tributes  of  Asia  and  Africa  worked  no 
good  to  Rome.  But  it  was  a  broad,  fertile  land,  occupied  by  a 
people  who  readily  adopted  Roman  institutions  and  civilization, 
and  who  speedily  became  Romanized.  The  sixty  Gallic  tribes 
were  organized  into  sixty  municipalities.^  The  language,  customs, 
and  culture  of  the  Romans  became  those  of  the  native  inhabitants  ; 
and  no  part  of  the  empire  was  more  homogeneous  and  contented. 
Gaul  became  a  seat  of  flourishing  trade  and  of  well-conducted 
schools.  Above  all,  its  situation,  giving  access  at  once  to  Britain 
and  to  Germany,  made  it  in  the  later  empire  the  centre  of  civiliza- 
tion and  power  in  western  Europe. 

1  These  were  afterwards,  probably  by  Tiberius,  increased  to  sixty-four;  and 
they  were  the  basis  of  the  territorial  divisions  of  mediaeval  France. 


210  CAESAR. 

II.   The  Second  Civil  War. 

The  Situation  in  Rome.  — At  the  very  moment  that  the  revolt 

of  Vercingetorix  seemed  upon  the  point  of  overturning 
B.C.  52.      the  Roman  authority  in  Gaul,  Rome  itself  was  upon  the 

verge  of  anarchy.  The  triumvirate  had  been  broken  in 
pieces.  Crassus  was  dead,  Caesar  was  absent,  and  since  the  death 
of  Julia  (p.  202)  he  and  Pompey,  though  still  nominally  friends, 
had  been  gradually  drawing  apart.  Everything  now  pointed  to 
Pompey's  ascendency.  As  proconsul  of  Spain  (p.  202),  and  as 
commissioner  of  the  corn  supplies,  he  was  invested  with  the  high- 
est mihtary  authority ;  and,  although  he  was  prohibited  from 
entering  the  city  while  in  possession  of  this  authority,  he  remained 
in  its  neighborhood,  where  he  could  make  his  influence  promptly 
and  decisively  felt.  When  needful,  the  Senate  was  convened  in 
some  temple  outside  of  the  city  walls,^  in  order  that  the  great  man 
might  be  present  at  its  deliberations. 

The  Death  of  Clodius.  —  An  event  now  occurred  which  raised 
Pompey  still  higher  in  power  and  influence.  The  year  53  had 
passed  in  contention  and  disorder :  party  dissensions  had  been 
so  violent  and  unscrupulous  that  no  magistrates  could  be  elected 
for  the  year  following.  When  New  Year's  Day  arrived,  there 
were  no  consuls  to  be  inaugurated ;  the  machinery  of  govern- 
ment had  come  to  a  stand-still,  and,  according  to  constitutional 

usage  (p.  20),  an  interrex  had  to  be  appointed  by  the 
B.C.  52.      patrician  senators,  to  set  the  wheels  in  motion  again. 

In  this  condition  of  things,  it  happened  that  two 
notorious  buUies,  the  demagogue  Clodius  (p.  201)  and  Milo,  a 
champion  of  the  senatorial  faction — "the  Achifles  and  the  Hector 
of  the  streets  "  —  met  upon  the  Appian  Way,  a  few  miles  from  the 
city,  each  at  the  head  of  a  company  of  gladiators  and  roughs.  In 
the  fight  that  ensued,  Clodius  was  killed.     His  body  was  carried 

1  More  correctly  the  pomccrium^  or  sacred  enclosure  of  the  city,  which  did 
not  at  all  points  run  parallel  with  the  city  walls.  As  the  Campus  Martius  was 
outside  of  i\iQ  pomocrium,  he  could  remain  there  freely. 


BREACH   WITH  POMPEY.  211 

to  Rome,  and  his  funeral  made  the  occasion  of  a  disorderly  political 
demonstration.  The  funeral  pile  was  made  in  the  Senate-house,  and 
the  building  itself  was  consumed  in  the  flames.  Anarchy  ran  riot, 
and  order  was  not  restored  until  Pompey,  without  being  required 
to  lay  down  his  other  offices,  was  appointed  sole  consul  —  an 
unconstitutional  authority  and  a  meaningless  term.^  Milo  was 
brought  to  trial,  and  Cicero  was  engaged  as  his  counsel ;  but  the 
howls  of  the  mob  intimidated  the  orator,  and  the  splendid  speech 
which  he  had  prepared  was  never  delivered.  Milo  went  into  exile 
at  Massilia. 

Attitude  of  Pompey.  —  The  course  of  events  had  thus  separated 
Pompey  from  his  democratic  associates,  and  brought  him  into 
alliance  with  the  senatorial  party.  This  was  not  a  surprising 
change,  for  he  had  never  been  at  heart  a  democrat.  But  neither 
was  he  at  heart  attached  to  the  aristocratic  constitution  of  the  state. 
He  was  for  himself,  first  and  always.  Although  no  statesman,  he 
was  clear-sighted  enough  to  see  that  the  supreme  power  in  Rome 
would  be  the  prize  of  the  man  who  had  the  courage  and  abihty  to 
seize  it.  The  senatorial  leaders,  for  their  part,  saw  with  equal 
clearness  that  Caesar  was  their  most  dangerous  adversary,  and 
were  ready  to  make  Pompey  their  leader,  and  the  nominal 
champion  of  the  republic.  It  was  a  hollow  coalition,  no  less 
than  that  between  Caesar  and  Pomj^ey  had  been ;  for  each  party 
sought  its  own  ends,  and  neither  trusted  the  other,  but  each  hoped 
to  make  of  the  other  a  means  of  victory  over  their  common  enemy 
Caesar.  Armed  with  such  extraordinary  powers,  and  with  the  sup- 
port of  the  Senate,  Pompey  seemed  all-powerful ;  and  if  he  had 
had  political  abilities  equal  to  his  ambition,  and  to  his  unquestioned 
military  capacity,  it  would  seem  that,  in  the  absence  of  Caesar,  he 
might  easily  have  made  himself  master  of  Rome. 

Situation  of  Caesar.  —  Caesar's  situation,  meanwhile,  was  embar- 
rassing, and  even  perilous.     His  legal  term  of  office,  as  governor 

1  "  Consul  without  colleague  (^sine  collegd)  " :  but  the  very  word  consul 
means  colleague.  After  a  while  Pompey  appointed  as  colleague  his  father- 
in-law,  Metellus  Scipio. 


212  CyESAK. 

of  the  three  provinces,  would  end  March  i,  e.g.  49.  After  this 
date  the  Senate  might  send  a  successor  to  supersede  him,  but  it 
was  usual  to  allow  the  provincial  governors  to  continue  in  com- 
mand until  the  new  year,  and  Ccesar  had  reckoned  upon  this.  It 
was  his  plan  to  be  elected  consul  for  the  year  48,  and  thus  to  pass 
at  once  from  his  proconsulate  to  the  consulship.  That  he  should 
do  this  was  almost  necessary  for  his  personal  safety,  as  his  enemies 
made  no  secret  of  their  intention  to  impeach  him  for  various  irregu- 
larities and  misdemeanors,  as  soon  as  he  should  become  a  private 
citizen ;  for  no  magistrate  could  be  impeached  during  his  term  of 
office.  If  he  could  obtain  the  consulship  he  would  be  safe,  and 
would  be  sure  of  a  new  provincial  governorship  afterwards. 

Impediments  in  Caesar's  Way.  —  But  there  was  an  impediment 
in  the  way.  The  election  regularly  took  place  in  July,  and  there 
was  a  law  requiring  candidates  for  office  to  present  themselves  in 
person  at  the  election.  This  Caesar  could  not  do  without  giving 
up  his  proconsular  command,  and  becoming  a  private  citizen ;  but 
the  law  had  on  several  occasions  been  suspended,  and  it  was  part 
of  the  bargain  between  the  triumvirs  that  it  should  be  suspended  in 
Caesar's  case,  and  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  offer  himself  as  a 
candidate  without  leaving  his  province.  By  forgetfulness  or  trick- 
ery on  Pompey's  part,  this  privilege  had  not  been  legally  obtained 
for  Caesar,  and  now,  as  the  close  of  his  command  approached,  he 
found  himself  without  any  security  for  the  future. 

Negotiations  between  the  Parties.  —  On  the  other  hand,  when 
the  terms  of  Pompey's  threefold  authority  had  expired,^  his  com- 
mand in  Spain  was  continued  for  five  years,  and  he  was  placed  by 
the  Senate  over  Italy  and  all  its  resources.  He  felt  so  confident 
of  his  strength  that  he  asserted  openly  that  Caesar  was  no  more 
likely  to  resist  the  Senate  than  a  child  to  give  a  blow  to  his  parent ; 
and  when  questioned  as  to  his  forces,  he  said  he  had  but  to  stamp 
his  foot,  and  Italy  would  swarm  with  soldiers.  The  year  50  passed 
with  fruitless  negotiations  ;  the  Senate,  coming  under  the  influence 

1  He  was  consul  (b.c.  52),  proconsul  of  Spain  (54-49),  and  commissioner 
of  corn  supplies  (57-52). 


THE    CIVIL    WAR.  213 

of  the  compromise  or  peace  party,  ordered  both  rivals  to  lay  down 
arms.  Caesar  declared  that  he  was  ready  to  do  this,  if  Pompey 
would  do  the  same  ;  but  Pompey  stubbornly  refused. 

Beginning  of  the  Civil  War.  —  With  the  new  year  B.C.  49. 
the  war  party  regained  the  ascendency  in  the  Senate, 
and  peremptorily  ordered  Caesar  to  give  up  his  command ;  and 
when  two  tribunes,  Mark  Antony  and  Quintus  Cassius,  tried  to  use 
their  legal  right  of  intercession  and  stop  the  proceedings,  their 
sacred  character  was  violated,  and  they  were  obliged  to  escape  in 
disguise  to  Caesar's  camp  at  Ravenna.  Caesar  acted  with  his  usual 
promptness  and  decision.  Declaring  himself  the  champion  of  the 
constitution,  which  had  been  violated  in  the  person  of  the  trib- 
unes, he  put  his  army  in  motion  ;  exclaiming  "  the  die  is  cast,"  he 
led  his  troops  over  the  little  river  Rubicon,  which  was  the  boun- 
dary between  his  province  and  Italy,  and  the  civil  war  was  begun. 

Retreat  of  Pompey.  —  Caesar's  prompt  action  in  crossing  the 
Rubicon  threw  his  opponents  into  distraction  and  panic.  No  sol- 
diers sprang  from  the  ground  at  Pompey's  call ;  he  found  himself 
destitute  of  resources,  and  was  compelled  to  take  refuge  beyond 
the  Adriatic  Sea.  The  greater  part  of  the  magistrates  and  Senate 
accompanied  him,  and  the  government  of  the  republic  was  set  up 
at  Thessalonica,  on  the  coast  of  Macedonia.  There  were  thus  two 
rival  governments,  at  Rome  and  Thessalonica,  each  claiming  to  be 
the  legitimate  one. 

Caesar's  Conquest  of  the  West.  —  It  was  necessary  for  Caesar 
to  secure  himself  in  the  West  before  following  his  enemy  into  the 
East.  He  first  set  things  in  order  in  Italy,  then  proceeded  to 
Spain,  and  brought  it  under  his  authority.  On  his  way  back  to 
Italy,  he  besieged  and  captured  the  rich  city  of  Massilia,  which 
had  ardently  espoused  the  cause  of  the  republic.  He  left  it  in 
possession  of  its  independence,  but  deprived  it  of  the  principal 
part  of  its  territory ;  and  it  continued  for  some  years  longer  to 
exist  as  an  inferior  power,  nominally  independent  of  Rome.  In 
the  meantime  Caesar  had  sent  Curio,  one  of  his  officers,  to  take 
possession  of  Africa ;  but  Curio  was  defeated  and  killed  by  Juba, 


214 


CMSAR. 


King  of  jMauritania,  and  Africa  remained  in  possession  of  the 
senatorial  party,  while  Caesar's  authority  was  supreme  in  Italy, 
Gaul,  and  Spain. 

Caesar's  Dictatorship.  —  During  Caesar's  absence  in  the  West 
he  was  appointed  dictator,  which  office  he  held  for  only  eleven 
days,  using  its  machinery  to  procure  his  own  election  to  the  consul - 


JULIUS    C>ESAR.      (From  a   Bust   in  the   Museum   of  the   Louvre.) 


ship  for  the  next  year,  b.c.  48.  He  also  procured  the  passage  of 
an  important  act  giving  the  citizenship  to  the  inhabitants  of  Cis- 
alpine   Gaul.^      This  was  in  the   line   of  the  policy  of  the  early 

1  As  the  communities  which  obtained  the  franchise  by  this  law  were  almost 
entirely  north  of  the  Po,  it  is  generally  known  as  a  law  giving  citizenship  to 
the  Transpadani. 


CyESAR  AS  DICTATOR.  215 

democratic  leaders,  who  had  procured  the  citizenship  for  the 
ItaHan  alhes  (p.  175).  Cisalpine  Gaul  had  been  made  subject  to 
Rome  before  the  war  with  Hannibal  (p.  in),  and  had  been 
governed  as  a  province.  Caesar  had  for  many  years  been  the 
champion  of  its  inhabitants,  and  almost  his  first  act,  when  in  pos- 
session of  supreme  power,  was  to  procure  them  the  suffrage.  As 
a  result.  Cisalpine  Gaul  ceased  to  be  reckoned  as  a  province,  and 
now  became  a  part  of  Italy. 

Financial  Legislation.  —  Caesar's  most  important  legislation  at 
this  period  was  for  the  relief  of  financial  embarrassments.  We 
have  seen  how  the  unbounded  extravagance  of  the  young  nobles 
had  plunged  them  hopelessly  into  debt  (p.  188),  and  how  the 
demand  for  "  New  Accounts "  had  led  to  an  attempt  to  revolu- 
tionize the  government,  in  the  conspiracy  of  Catihne.  Caesar  him- 
self was  deeply  involved  in  debt,  and  it  was  believed  that  he  had 
secretly  been  an  accomplice  of  Catiline ;  every  one  expected, 
therefore,  that  now  that  he  was  in  possession  of  the  power,  he 
would  follow  out  the  programme  of  his  party,  and  proclaim  ''  new 
accounts."  But  he  disappointed  these  expectations,  and  promul- 
gated instead  a  moderate  measure  for  the  relief  of  debtors,  deduct- 
ing the  interest  already  paid  from  the  principal,  and  requiring 
property  to  be  taken  in  liquidation  of  the  debts  at  the  valuation 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  The  revolutionists  were  keenly 
disappointed  by  this  law,  and  attempted,  in  Caesar's  absence,  to 
carry  more  sweeping  measures  of  relief;  but  by  his  moderation  in 
this  respect,  as  well  as  by  his  unexpected  clemency,  Caesar  gained 
the  confidence  and  support  of  quiet  and  conservative  citizens. 

CsBsar  in  Greece.  —  Having  thus  secured  himself  in  the  West, 
and  assumed  the  consulship  for  the  year  48,  Caesar  followed 
Pompey  into  the  East.  His  forces  were  much  inferior  to  those  of 
his  antagonist,  and  Pompey  still  ranked  as  the  greatest  soldier  of 
his  generation.  Moreover,  Caesar's  first  operations  were  far  from 
promising.  By  a  rash  and  hasty  attempt  to  capture  Dyrrhachium, 
upon  the  coast  of  Illyricum,  he  came  near  being  ruined.  Even 
his  extraordinary  fertility  of  resources  scarcely  rescued  him.     He 


^ 


216  CAiSAR. 

escaped  with  great  difficulty  into  Thessaly,  where  the  two  rivals 
encountered  one  another  upon  the  plains  of  Pharsalus,  just  south 
of  CynoscephalDe  (p.  133). 

Battle  of  Pharsalus.  —  The  armies  were  very  unequal  in  num- 
/bers :  Pompey  had  47,000  infantry,  Caesar  barely  22,000.  In 
cavalry  there  was  a  still  greater  disparity :  Caesar  had  not  much 
over  1000,  against  Pompey 's  7000.  The  armies  were  drawn  up 
in  such  a  manner  that  Caesar's  left  flank  and  Pompey's  right  were 
protected,  while  the  other  flanks  stretched  into  the  open  plain. 
Pompey  therefore  made  his  attack  upon  Caesar's  right,  where  his 
powerful  cavalry  speedily  routed  Caesar's  handful  of  horsemen,  and 
drove  them  in  flight,  designing  then  to  take  Caesar's  infantry  upon  the 
flank.  But  in  the  rear  of  the  fleeing  horse  they  suddenly  encoun- 
tered a  body  of  2000  infantry,  picked  veterans  of  the  Gallic  army, 
who  charged  impetuously  upon  the  victorious  cavalry,  using  their 
javelins  as  pikes,  and  thrusting  them  in  the  faces  of  the  enemy.^ 
This  infantry  charge  decided  the  battle ;  Pompey's  army  was 
broken  in  pieces,  and  he  himself,  losing  heart,  fled  in  all  haste  to 
Egypt. 

Caesar  in  the  East.  —  Egypt  was  at  this  time  ruled  by  the  boy- 
king,  Ptolemy  Dionysus,  who  had  expelled  his  sister  and  consort, 
Cleopatra.  When  the  defeated  Pompey  arrived  on  the  shore  of 
Egypt  to  seek  a  refuge,  the  ministers  of  Pompey,  unwilling  to 
receive  him,  and  yet  not  daring  to  leave  him  at  large,  had  him 
perfidiously  assassinated ;  and  his  dissevered  head  was  the  first 
sight  that  greeted  Caesar  when  he  arrived  at  Alexandria  in  pursuit. 
A  few  months  were  spent  by  Caesar  in  ordering  affairs  in  Egypt, 
where  he  restored  Cleopatra  to  her  throne  and  suppressed  a  dan- 
gerous revolt ;  and  in  Asia  Minor,  where  Pharnaces,  son  of  Mith- 
radates,  ventured  to  oppose  him.  The  rapidity  of  his 
B.C.  47.  victory  over  Pharnaces  was  expressed  in  his  laconic  dis- 
patch :  Veiii,  indi,  vici ;  "  I  came,  I  saw,  I  conquered." 

1  The  order  to  strike  in  their  faces  was,  says  Mommsen,  in  order  to  secure 
the  greatest  efficacy  of  their  weapons,  —  not,  as  is  often  alleged,  to  disfigure 
the  faces  of  the  dandies. 


END    OF  THE  REPUBLIC.  217 

War  in  Africa.  —  The  year  of  Caesar's  operations  in  the  East 
had  been  energetically  spent  by  the  republican  leaders  in  prepar- 
ing to  resist  the  conqueror  in  Africa,  the  only  part  of  the  empire 
which  now  remained  to  them.  They  were  under  the  command  of 
Metellus  Scipio,  a  zealous  aristocrat,  but  a  man  of  mean  character, 
and  Cato,  the  true  leader  and  the  best  representative  of  his  party, 
an  honest  man,  but  narrow  in  opinions  and  prejudices.  Cato  held 
Utica,  the  capital  of  the  province,  while  Scipio  commanded  the 
army  in  the  field. 

Mutiny  of  the  Troops.  —  After  the  victory  of  Pharsalus,  Caesar 
was  appointed  to  a  second  dictatorship,  and  before  proceeding 
against  Scipio  and  Cato,  made  a  brief  visit  to  Italy,  whence  he 
prepared  to  transport  his  army  to  Africa.  But  a  dangerous  mutiny 
threatened  to  defeat  all  his  plans.  The  soldiers  in  Campania, 
tired  of  their  long  warfare  and  disappointed  as  yet  in  their  ex- 
pectations of  plunder  and  vengeance,  refused  to  move  until  certain 
promised  rewards  should  be  paid  them,  assaulted  their  officers, 
and  marched  to  Rome,  demanding  discharge.  To  their  unutter- 
able surprise  it  was  promptly  granted ;  and  when  their  general 
proceeded  to  address  them,  no  longer  as  "  fellow  soldiers,"  but  as 
"fellow  citizens"  {Quirites),  they  at  once  submitted,  and  begged 
him  to  receive  them  again  into  his  service.  This  he  did,  punishing 
the  ringleaders,  however,  by  depriving  them  of  a  large  part  of 
their  donatives.  Caesar's  genius  was  never  more  conspicuous  than 
in  the  suppression  of  this  mutiny. 

Battle  of  Thapsus.  —  The  decisive  battle,  fatal  to  the  republic, 
was  fought  the  next  year,  B.C.  46,  at  Thapsus  in  Africa.  The 
army  of  the  republic  was  commanded  by  Metellus  Scipio,  a  sol- 
dier quite  incapable  of  meeting  Caesar  on  equal  terms.  The 
mutiny  of  the  year  before  had  displayed  the  lawless  spirit 
of  Caesar's  .soldiers;  and  at  Thapsus  they  showed  this  again, 
rushing  impetuously  forward  without  waiting  for  the  word  of  com- 
mand, but  forcing  their  general  to  fall  into  line  with  them.  Scipio's 
array  of  elephants  was  thrown  into  disorder,  and  his  army  was 
swept  away  with  them.    The  victors  refused  to  give  quarter.     Fifty 


218  CALSAR. 

thousand  of  the  repubhcan  army  were  slaughtered,  while  only  about 
fifty  of  Caesar's  troops  fell.  At  the  news  of  the  defeat,  which  he 
had  expected,  Cato  put  himself  to  death  at  Utica,  determined  not 
to  survive  the  republic. 

Caesar's  Triumphs.  —  On  his  return  to  Rome  Caesar  celebrated 
a  fourfold  triumph  for  his  victories  :  over  the  Gauls,  King  Ptolemy 
of  Egypt,  King  Pharnaces  of  Pontus,  and  Juba  of  Mauritania. 
The  sentiment  of  nationality  and  patriotism  was  still  too  strong  to 
permit  a  triumph  over  fellow-citizens ;  the  victories  over  Pompey 
and  Scipio  received  no  commemoration. 

Caesar's  Third  Dictatorship. — At  the  news  of  the  battle  of 
Thapsus  a  third  dictatorship,  for  ten  years,  was  bestowed  upon 
Caesar,  together  with  the  censorial  power  {praefectura  moi'iivi) 
for  three  years,  and  the  right  to  nominate  all  magistrates.  The 
tribunician  power  he  had  already  received  in  the  year  48  ;  and  to 
the  office  of  pontifex  maximus,  or  head  of  the  Roman  religion, 
he  had  been  elected  B.C.  6^,.  He  now  entered  upon  a  series  of 
legislative  acts  of  a  far-reaching  and  beneficent  character.  Among 
these  were  laws  which  regulated  the  military  service,  the  care  of 
the  streets,  the  government  of  the  provinces,  the  evils  of  luxurious 
living,  and  the  criminal  courts ;  the  provision  of  the  Aurelian  law 
(P-  195)?  by  which  one-third  of  the  jurors  in  these  were  taken 
from  the  officers  of  the  tribes,  was  abolished,  and  the  juries  were 
to  be  composed  equally  of  senators  and  knights.  The  number 
who  received  donations  of  corn  from  the  state  was  reduced  from 
320,000  to  150,000.  The  organization  of  the  municipal  system 
(P-  175)  belongs  to  this  group  of  laws.  An  attempt  was  also 
made  to  counteract  the  most  dangerous  tendencies  of  Italian 
society  (pp.  150-2)  by  a  law  providing  that  one-third  of  the  herds- 
men should  be  freemen ;  another  law  seems  to  have  regulated 
loans  and  mortgages.  Large  assignments  of  land  were  made  to 
his  veterans,  and  care  was  taken  that  they  should  neither  be  con- 
centrated in  a  few  localities,  nor  interfere  with  previous  occupation. 
With  Caesar  began  also  the  regular  coinage  of  gold ;  the  aureus, 
of  the  value  of  100  sesterces  (^5.00),  issued  by  him,  was  the 


BATTLE    OF  MUA'DA.  219 

standard  of  the  early  Empire,   and  retained  its  purity  until  the 
reign  of  Nero. 

Reform  of  the  Calendar.  —  The  most  important  of  these  acts 
was  the  reform  of  the  calendar,  which  he  accomplished  by  his 
authority  2cs>pontifex  maximus.  The  Roman  calendar  had  probably 
been  the  clumsiest  and  most  inconvenient  that  any  civilized  nation 
ever  had  ;  ^  and  it  had  fallen  so  completely  out  of  relation  with  the 
seasons  that  in  the  year  49  the  vernal  equinox  came  in  May. 
Caesar  established  the  calendar  which,  with  some  slight  improve- 
ments, still  continues  in  use.^  It  went  into  operation  on  the  ist 
of  January,  45.  To  make  the  new  year  correspond  with  the  sea- 
son, it  was  necessary  to  make  so  large  an  intercalation  that  the 
year  46  consisted  of  fifteen  months  of  four  hundred  and  forty-five 
days. 

Battle  of  Munda,  B.C.  45.  —  One  more  military  exploit  re- 
mained. The  battle  of  Pharsalus  had  dissolved  the  connection 
between  the  party  of  Pompey  and  that  of  the  republic.  The  sons 
of  Pompey,  Gnseus  and  Sextus,  escaped  their  father's  fate.  They 
did  not  join  the  republican  leaders  in  Africa,  having  no  interest  in 
the  preservation  of  the  Republic,  but  repaired  to  Spain,  where  their 
father  had  many  adherents,  and  here  set  up  an  indepen- 
dent power.  Caesar  followed  them  the  year  after  Thapsus,  B.C.  45. 
and  by  a  final  victory  at  Munda  established  his  undivided 
authority  over  the  Roman  empire.  Gnseus  shortly  after  lost  his 
life,  buf  Sextus  continued  an  active  career  for  several  years. 

The  Empire.  —  The  battle  of  Munda  was  followed  by  new  grants 
of  honor  and  power  to  Caesar,  chief  of  which  was  the  bestowal  of 
the  tide  Imperator,  to  be  held  for  life,  and  transmitted  to  his  heirs. 

1  It  consisted  of  four  months  of  31  days,  seven  of  29,  while  February  had 
28  every  other  year;  in  the  alternate  years  an  intercalary  month  of  27  days 
being  inserted  after  February,  which  on  these  years  had  alternately  23  and  24 
days. 

2  It  is  known  as  the  Julian  Calendar  ;  as  corrected  by  Pope  Gregory  XIII. 
in  the  sixteenth  century  (omitting  the  intercalation  once  in  a  century),  it  is 
called  the  Gregorian  Calendar, 


220  CyESAR. 

By  this  act  an  hereditary  monarchy  was  formally  established  in 
Rome.  The  Republic  had  come  to  an  end  with  the  battle  of 
Thapsus,  and  Caesar  had  been  invested  with  absolute  power  under 
the  name  of  a  republican  magistracy.  With  the  title  Imperator  a 
new  magistracy,  monarchical  and  hereditary  in  character, 
B.C.  44.  came  into  existence.  Early  the  next  year  the  dictator- 
ship was  made  perpetual. 

III.   The  Death  of  C/esar. 

Caesar's  Craving  for  the  Royal  Title.  —  With  all  his  greatness, 
Caesar  was  not  free  from  the  human  foibles  of  vanity  and  osten- 
tation, or  from  that  craving  for  empty  titles,  which  was  afterwards 
the  ruin  of  Napoleon,  and  from  which  even  Cromwell  was  not 
exempt.  He  possessed  the  substance  of  kingly  power,  and  it  was 
made  hereditary  in  his  family ;  but  he  was  not  satisfied  without 
the  name  of  king.  And  yet  he  did  not  dare  to  assume  the  name 
in  the  face  of  the  intense  hatred  in  which  it  was  held  by  the  people 
of  Rome.  But  he  allowed  himself  to  be  the  object  of  extravagant 
honors,  and  even  to  be  worshipped  as  a  god.  He  surrounded 
himself,  so  far  as  was  possible  in  the  presence  of  the  memories 
of  the  Republic,  with  the  ceremonial  of  oriental  monarchies. 
When  Mark  Antony,  his  colleague  in  the  consulship  of  r;.c.  44, 
offered  him  a  diadem  in  the  presence  of  the  people,  at  the  festival 
of  the  Lupercalia  (Feb.  15),  he  twice  rejected  it,  but  in. such  a 
way  that,  as  Shakespeare  puts  it,  "■  For  all  that,  he  would  fain 
have  had  it." 

Cleopatra,  Queen  of  Egypt.  —  Thus  Caesar  was  king  in  all  but 
name,  and  he  took  little  pains  to  conciliate  the  feelings  of -the 
republicans  by  moderation  of  demeanor.  He  even  received  in 
Rome  the  visits  of  the  dissolute  Queen  Cleopatra ;  and  the  propo- 
sition was  made  in  the  Senate,  —  it  cannot  be  supposed  that  it  was 
without  his  knowledge,  —  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  marry  as 
many  wives  as  he  pleased,  and  whomsoever  (that  is,  from  whatever 
nation)  he  pleased.     This  was  in  order  to  enable  him  to  marry 


CONSPIRACY  AGAINST   CAiSAR,  221 

Cleopatra.  The  law  in  question  would  have  abrogated  the  strict 
law  of  marriage,  upon  which  Roman  institutions  rested  (p.  6i), 
and,  what  is  worse,  would  have  destroyed  the  very  foundation  of 
the  Roman  family,  and  set  up  the  oriental  harem  in  its  place. ^ 
So  far  had  Caesar  departed  from  the  spirit  of  those  institutions  to 
which  Rome  owed  its  greatness. 

Conspiracy  for  Caesar's  Death. — We  need  not  be  surprised, 
therefore,  that  a  conspiracy  was  formed  to  put  an  end  to  a  domin- 
ion which  so  outraged  Roman  sentiment,  nor  that  the  conspiracy 
included,  not  only  friends  of  the  Republic,  but  some  of  CiEsar's 
earlier  adherents.  It  was  not,  however,  wholly  inspired  by  worthy 
and  patriotic  motives.  Its  leader.  Gains  Cassius,  was  a  peevish, 
disappointed  man,  who  desired  to  avenge  a  personal  slight.-  His 
chief  associate,  Marcus  Brutus,  was  a  consistent  upholder  of  the 
senatorial  rule,  a  man  of  j^hilosophical  tastes  and  temperament, 
who  brooded  over  the  loss  of  public  liberty,  and  weakly  allowed 
himself  to  be  made  the  tool  of  Cassius  and  other  schemers.  The 
identity  of  his  name  with  that  of  the  traditional  founder  of  the 
RepubHc,  although  there  was  probably  no  relationship  between 
the  two,  was  used  as  a  powerful  incentive  upon  a  mind  incapable 
of  broad  statesmanship.  He  could  not  see  that  the  Republic  had 
really  perished,  that  Caesar's  rule  had  established  peace  and  order, 
and  that  his  death  would  be  the  signal  for  new  disturbances  and 
bloodshed.  The  leader  next  in  importance  was  Decimus  Brutus, 
whose  share  in  the  event  was  even  less  creditable  ;  for  he  was 
neither  a  fanatic,  like  Marcus,  nor  had  he,  like  Cassius,  any  griev- 
ances, real  or  fancied,  against  Caesar,  from  whom  he  had  received 
peculiar  favor  and  friendship.^ 

1  It  is  related  that  King  Ptolemy  of  Egypt  offered  marriage  to  Cornelia,  the 
mother  of  the  Gracchi.  We  are  not  told  how  the  offer  was  received,  but  such 
a  marriage  was  not  possible  by  Roman  law. 

2  Caesar  had  withheld  from  him  the  consulship,  to  which  he  thought  himself 
entitled. 

'^  It  was  Decimus  Brutus,  not  Marcus,  who  engaged  Caesar's  personal  affec- 
tion.    Shakespeare  is  mistaken  in  this. 


222  CyESAR. 

Plans  of  the  Conspirators.  — The  conspirators  vainly  imagined 
that  if  the  "  tyrant "  should  be  removed  the  Republic  could  be 
easily  restored,  and  that  the  populace  would  gather  enthusiastically 
about  the  champions  of  liberty.  But  the  Roman  populace  had 
long  ceased  to  have  any  real  interest  in  the  institutions  of  the 
Republic.  They  hated  the  name  of  king,  but  for  the  substance  of 
monarchical  power  they  cared  little.  So  long  as  they  had  their 
distributions  of  corn  and  free  exhibitions  in  the  circus  and  amphi- 
theatre {panem  et  circenses),  they  were  satisfied.  Caesar's  human- 
ity, liberality,  and  justice  had  won  their  hearts ;  and  the  conspiracy 
proved  a  melancholy,  almost  a  ridiculous,  failure. 

Their  Preparations. — There  were  in  all  some  sixty  accom- 
plices ;  and  for  nearly  a  month  they  succeeded  in  keeping  their 
designs  secret :  not  so  secret,  however,  but  that  Caesar  received 
more  than  one  warning,  to  which  he  heedlessly  refused  to  pay 
attention.  It  was  debated  among  the  conspirators  whether  Caesar's 
colleague  in  the  consulship,  Mark  Antony,  and  his  master  of  the 
horse,  Marcus  Lepidus,  should  also  be  slain ;  but  Brutus  urged 
that  it  would  pollute  their  sacred  cause  if  any  should  be  put  to 
death  but  the  tyrant  himself.  It  was  proposed  to  admit  Cicero 
to  a  knowledge  of  their  plans  ;  but  this  too  was  judged  unadvis- 
able.  The  assassination  was  fixed  for  the  Ides  of  March  (March 
15),  B.C.  44,  on  which  day  a  regular  session  of  the  Senate  was  to 
be  held.  At  this  meeting  a  new  consul  was  to  be  nominated 
to  take  Caesar's  place  for  the  remainder  of  the  year.^ 
"^"The  Assassination. — The  Senate  sat,  on  this  occasion,  in  a 
hall  attached  to  the  theatre  of  Pompey,  on  the  Campus  Martins, 
not  far  from  the  Capitoline.^  A  statue  of  Pompey  stood  in  the 
hall,  and  it  was  at  the  foot  of  this  statue,^  "  which  all  the  while  ran 

1  This  was  the  plan  regularly  followed  under  the  empire,  that  the  first,  or 
epotty?jious,  consuls  of  each  year  retired  after  some  months.  In  some  cases 
there  was  a  succession  of  several  pairs  during  the  year. 

2  This  was  the  first  stone  theatre  erected  in  Rome. 

3  The  statue  from  which  the  illustration  is  taken  (p,  192)  was  found  in  this 
neighborhood,  and  is  believed  to  have  been  the  one  at  whose  base  Caesar  fell. 


C/ESAR'S  ASSASSINATION.  Ill 

blood,"  that  "great  Caesar  fell."  One  of  the  conspirators  detained 
Mark  Antony  out  of  doors,  in  order  that  there  might  be  no  inter- 
ruption of  the  deed.  Another,  presenting  a  petition,  grasped 
Caesar's  robe,  to  impede  his  movements,  while  "the  envious 
Casca"  struck  him  from  behind  in  the  neck.  For  a  moment  he 
defended  himself;  then,  seeing  that  he  was  hemmed  in  by  a  circle 
of  armed  enemies,  and  that  resistance  could  avail  him  nothing, 
he  covered  his  face  with  his  toga,  at  the  same  time  dropping  its 
folds  so  as  to  cover  his  feet,  and  died  without  a  struggle.^  The 
conspirators  then,  holding  aloft  their  bloody  daggers,  rushed  into 
the  street  and  proclaimed  the  restoration  of  liberty. 

Events  following  the  Assassination.  —  It  soon  appeared  how 
wofully  they  had  deceived  themselves.  The  senators  had  fled  in 
terror.  The  people,  instead  of  flocking  to  their  support,  shrank 
from  them  in  bewilderment.  They  saw  the  fatal  mistake  they  had 
made  in  suffering  Antony  and  Lepidus  to  live  ;  for,  had  these  been 
removed,  Brutus,  as  prcEtor  urbanus,  would  have  been  the  chief 
magistrate  of  the  state.  As  it  was,  these  two  friends  of  Caesar 
were  armed  with  all  civil  and  military  power,  as  lawful  rulers,  and 
Brutus  and  Cassius  were  nothing  but  conspirators.  Lepidus  was  a 
man  without  weight  or  influence  ;  but  Antony,  far  from  being  the 
trifler  that  they  had  fancied  him,  showed  himself  possessed  of  lofty 
ambition,  ready  in  resources,  prompt  and  resolute  in  action.  He 
at  once  possessed  himself  of  Caesar's  papers  and  treasures,  and 
was  master  of  the  situation. 

Caesar's  Funeral.  —  Meanwhile  the  conspirators,  disappointed 
in  their  expectations,  had  taken  refuge  in  the  Capitol,  protected 
by  the  gladiators  of  Decimus  Brutus.  Weeks  passed  in  bargaining 
and  intriguing.  The  passions  of  the  people  were  easily  excited 
against  the  conspirators  by  Antony's  adroit  eloquence  ;  and  when 

1  There  is  no  classical  authority  for  the  famous  Et  hi  Brute !  When 
Tillius  Cimber  pulled  his  robe,  he  cried,  hta  quidcm  vis  est !  at  the  first  stroke 
he  exclaimed  angrily  to  Casca,  after  which  he  appears  not  to  have  uttered  a 
word,  although  some  reported  that  when  he  saw  Marcus  Brutus  among  the 
assassins,  he  said,  koX  av  reKvov ! 


224  C/ESAR. 

Caesar's  will  was  read,  which  gave  liberal  donations  to  tlie  people, 
their  gratitude  and  affection  were  roused  to  a  high  degree  of  enthu- 
siasm.^ They  seized  Caesar's  body,  carried  it  into  the  Forum,  to  a 
place  opposite  his  residence,  and  burned  it  upon  a  funeral  pile 
constructed  of  benches  and  other  chance  timber.  On  this  spot  a 
temple  was  afterwards  erected  to  the  deified  Caesar  {Divus  Julius) , 
the  ruins  of  which  have  been  lately  discovered.- 

Domination  of  Mark  Antony.  —  Antony  now  had  everything 
his  own  way,  and  ruled  with  vindictiveness  and  arrogance.  The 
conspirators  found  themselves  powerless,  and  were  fortunate  in  being 
allowed  to  depart  in  safety  from  the  city.  Provinces  for  the  next 
year  had  been  assigned  to  the  leaders  before  Caesar's  death,  and 
now  they  proceeded  to  take  possession  of  them.  Decimus  Brutus 
assumed  command  in  Cisalpine  Gaul,  where  he  was  attacked  by 
the  consul  Antony;  INlarcus  Brutus  became  governor  of  Mace- 
donia, and  Cassius  of  Syria.  In  July  Cicero  left  Italy,  to  spend 
at  least  the  rest  of  the  year  in  the  East,  but  was  driven  back  by 
unfavorable  winds,  and  plucked  up  courage  to  return  to  Rome, 
where  he  arrived  about  the  end  of  August,  and  at  once  placed 
himself  at  the  head  of  the  opposition  to  Antony.  The  six  months 
that  followed  are  the  noblest  in  his  life. 

Character  of  Caesar.  —  The  character  of  Caesar^  and  his  influ- 
ence upon  the  world  are  subjects  upon  which  it  is  not  easy  to 
form  a  positive  opinion.  He  was  one  of  those  men  of  lofty 
genius,  like  Napoleon,  who  believe  themselves,  and  are  tacitly 
admitted  by  their  admirers,  to  be  exceptional  beings,  not  bound 

1  Shakespeare's  account  of  these  occurrences,  as  ususal  in  his  historical 
plays,  has  many  inaccuracies  of  detail,  but  seizes  the  spirit  of  events  with 
remarkable  truthfulness, 

2  Caesar's  residence,  the  7'egia  (the  official  residence  of  the  pontifex  i/iaxi- 
7nus),  was  on  the  Sacred  Way,  just  east  of  the  Forum,  where  its  remains  have 
recently,  as  is  believed,  been  identified. 

3  Froude's  life  of  Ccesar  is  the  best,  and  is  characterized  by  genuine  historic 
insight,  but  is  one-sided  and  not  always  accurate  in  detail.  See  also  Mr. 
Ropes'  paper  on  the  portraits  of  Caesar,  in  Scribjicr's  Monthly  for  March, 
1887. 


CHARACTER    OF  CAESAR.  225 

by  the  rules  of  conduct  which  govern  human  relations  in  general. 
His  early  life  is  admitted  to  have  been  dissolute ;  his  mature 
life  was  not  controlled  by  any  considerations  of  right  and  wrong. 
But  his  impulses  were  generous  and  humane ;  he  saw  clearly 
the  evils  of  society  and  government,  and  possessed  an  intuitive 
perception  of  the  means  to  check  them.  With  all  his  kind- 
ness of  heart,  he  was  capable  of  gross  bad  faith  and  wholesale 
slaughter,  when  it  served  his  purposes.  His  premature  death 
makes  it  impossible  for  us  to  judge  what  his  reconstruction  of 
the  state  might  have  accomplished  for  society,  especially  seeing 
that  his  successor,  Augustus,  adopted  a  plan  of  government 
widely  at  variance  with  his.  His  measures  in  themselves  were 
eminently  wise,  and  his  organization  of  the  municipal  system  shows 
that  he  realized  the  value  of  local  self-government  (p.  175).  But 
the  eagerness  with  which  he  pursued  the  phantom  of  royalty, 
which  caused  his  downfall,  leads  us  to  question  whether,  if  he  had 
lived,  he  would  not  have  made  the  mistake  of  so  many  men  of 
genius,  and  constructed  a  scheme  of  government  which  no  one 
was  capable  of  administering  but  himself. 


GLADIATORS.     (From  an  Ancient  Mosaic.) 


226 


0C7'A  VIAN. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 


OCT  AVI  AN. 


The  Young   Octavius.  —  Soon  after  Caesar's  assassination,  his 
jrand-nephew,  Gains  Octavius,  returned  to  Rome  from  the  East, 

where  he  had  been  sojourning.  He 
was  a  young  man  of  nineteen,  and 
as  Caesar  left  no  legitimate  descend- 
ants, he  adopted  Octavius  by  will, 
and  made  him  his  heir.  As  the 
law  required,  he  took  the  name  of 
his  adoptive  father.  Gains  Julius 
Caesar,  from  whom  he  is  usually 
distinguished  by  the  surname  Oc- 
tavian.^  The  delicate  health  of  the 
young  Caesar  had  kept  him  out  of 
a  military  life,  and,  as  ''  the  nephew 
of  his  uncle,"  he  seems  to  have 
\  '-^^m      been  regarded  with  some   degree 

V  ^^        of  contempt.      He  was,  however, 

long-headed  and  astute,  cool  and 
sagacious,    devoid   of    passion    or 
affection,    and    proved    himself    a 
match   for   the    most  experienced 
politicians  of  Rome. 
Octavian  as  the  Champion  of  the  Senate.  —  The  relations  of 
Octavian  with  Antony  were  not  at  first  friendly.    Antony  had  taken 
possession  of  Caesar's  property,  and  when  the  young  heir  demanded 

1  He  does  not  appear  to  have  used  this  name  himself,  but  it  is  employed  by 
most  modern  historians. 


THE   YOUNG    C/ESAR. 


THE    TRIUMVIRATE.  227 

his  inheritance,  he  was  told  that  it  had  been  already  expended  for 
public  purposes.  Without  hesitation  Octavian,  with  the  assistance 
of  his  relatives,  but  chiefly  from  his  own  fortune,  paid  Caesar's  leg- 
acies, and  thus  gained  permanent  popularity  with  the  populace. 
He  now  joined  the  party  of  the  Senate,  which  invested  him  with 
extraordinary  powers ;  and  during  the  autumn  and  win- 
ter that  followed  he  was  its  leading  champion  in  the  B.C.  44. 
field.  It  was  during  this  winter  that  Cicero  delivered  his  c-^ru-fiettcO 
last  series  of  speeches,  —  his  fourteen  invectives  against  Antony, 
which  are  known  as  Philippics} 

Octavian's  Treachery.  — The  consuls  for  the  following 
year  were  Hirtius  and  Pansa,  former  adherents  of  Caesar,  B.C.  43. 
but  who  now  held  with  the  Senate.  Antony  was  engaged 
in  besieging  Decimus  Brutus  at  Mutina  {Modena),  and  the  con- 
suls, with  Octavius,  advanced  to  raise  the  siege.  Two  battles  fol- 
lowed in  April,  in  which  Antony  was  decisively  beaten,  and  retired 
across  the  Alps,  where  he  joined  Lepidus ;  in  these  battles  both 
consuls  lost  their  lives.  Octavian  had  done  good  service  to  the 
Republic,  and  now  demanded  the  vacant  office  of  consul.  But  the 
Senate  distrusted  him,  and  it  was  not  until  the  end  of  the  summer 
that  the  consulship  was  reluctantly  granted  to  him.  It  was  too  late. 
He  was  already  alienated,  if,  indeed,  he  had  ever  been  sincere  in 
his  support  of  the  Senate.  He  now  united  himself  with  Antony 
and  Lepidus,  and  the  city  fell  again  under  military  rule. 

The  Second  Triumvirate. — The  three  conspirators,  masters  of  -^ 
the  city  and  all  its  military  forces,  had  themselves  appointed  tri- 
umvi?'s,^  with  full  authority  to  govern  and  reorganize  the  state. 
The  power  was  granted  for  five  years,  and  was  afterwards  extended 
for  five  more,  after  which  time  the  triumvirs  did  not  think  it  neces- 
sary to  seek  any  legal  foundation  of  their  authority.  They  com- 
menced their  rule  by  a  proscription  even  more  cold-blooded  than 

^  So  called  from  their  resemblance  to  Demosthenes'  Philippic  orations 
(against  Philip  of  Macedon). 

■^  This  was  the  name  given  by  the  Romans  to  the  members  of  a  board  of 
three  (p.  200). 


228  OCT  A  VI AN. 

that  of  Sulla,  in  which  each  member  of  the  trio  gratified  his  resent- 
ment by  procuring  the  sacrifice  of  his  personal  enemies.  Lepidus 
conceded  the  death  of  his  brother,  Antony  that  of  his  uncle,  while 
Cicero  fell  a  victim  to  the  enmity  of  Antony,  whom  he  had  attacked 
most  bitterly  during  the  past  winter.  The  number  who  perished 
was  said  to  surpass  the  victims  of  Sulla's  proscription,  and  to  have 
included  300  senators  and  2000  knights. 

Battle  of  Philippi.  —  In  the  meantime  Brutus  and  Cassius  had 
organized  an  army  in  their  provinces  of  the  East,  while  Sextus 
Pompey,  with  a  strong  naval  force,  was  master  of  a  large  part  of 
the  Mediterranean.  The  triumvirs  proceeded  first  against  the 
republican  leaders,  whom  they  met  at  Philippi  in  the  year  42. 
The  battle  here  fought  was  the  most  considerable  in  the  Roman 
annals  up  to  this  time  ;  the  army  of  the  Republic  counted  some 
80,000,  that  of  the  triumvirs  120,000.  There  were  two  battles  at 
Philippi.  In  the  first,  Brutus,  upon  the  right  wing,  drove  the 
forces  of  Octavian,  while  upon  the  left  Cassius  was  routed  by 
Antony.  Cassius,  in  a  fit  of  unmanly  despair,  slew  himself,  and 
twenty  days  later  Brutus  in  his  turn  was  defeated  by  the  united 
forces  of  the  triumvirs,  and  took  his  own  life.  With  the  deaths  of 
Cassius  and  Brutus  ended  the  attempt  to  restore  the  Republic  by 
assassination. 

Rule  of  the  Triumvirs.  — The  triumvirate  lasted  for  more  than 

ten  years,  during  which  time,  however,  the  incompetent 
B.C.  36.      Lepidus  was  set  aside  by  his  more  energetic  colleagues. 

In  this  interval,  too,  Sextus  Pompey  was  overthrown  and 
B.C.  35.      slain.       Having   rid    themselves    of  all  rivals,   the    two 

remaining  triumvirs  divided  the  Empire  between  them, 
Octavian  taking  the  West  and  Antony  the  East.  Here  Antony 
associated  himself  with  the  voluptuous  Cleopatra,  and  undertook  a 
war  against  the  Parthians,  in  which  he  himself  gained  only  dis- 
honor, while  all  the  success  and  reputation  went  to  his  lieutenant 
Ventidius. 

War  between  Octavian  and  Antony.  —  An  effort  was  made  to 
cement  the  bond  between  the  triumvirs,  and  to  wean  Antony  from 


ESTABIJSHMENT   OF   THE   EMPIRE.  119 

his  infatuated  love  for  Cleopatra,  by  marrying  him  to 
Octavia,  the  sister  of  Octavian.  But  the  fascinations  of  B.C.  40. 
Cleopatra  were  too  powerful ;  he  resigned  himself  to 
luxury  and  idleness  in  her  court,  and  at  last,  for  her  sake,  divorced 
his  faithful  wife  Octavia,  with  brutal  disregard  of  her  dignity,  and 
of  public  opinion.  This  disgraceful  conduct  aroused  the  Roman 
people,  and  war  was  declared  against  Egypt  —  not  a  civil  war 
between  the  Roman  triumvirs,  but  a  war  in  which  Antony,  now  a 
traitor,  was  associated  with  a  foreign  enemy  against  the  lawful 
government  of  his  native  country. 

Battle  of  Actium.  —  The  contest  was  decided  by  a  naval  batde. 
The  fleets  met  Sept.  2,  B.C.  31,  in  the  Bay  of  Actium,  west  of 
Greece.  Hardly  had  the  fight  begun,  when  Cleopatra  hoisted  sail, 
and  hastened  to  leave  the  line  of  battle,  followed  immediately  by 
Antony.  But  their  followers  fought  with  desperation  until  their 
fleet  was  destroyed.  The  cause  of  Antony  and  Cleopatra  was  lost. 
When  Octavian  followed  them  the  next  year,  they  were  found 
unprepared.  First  Antony,  in  despair,  put  himself  to  death,  and 
Cleopatra  followed  his  example,  in  order  to  escape  the  ignominy 
of  being  carried  in  the  conqueror's  triumphal  procession.  Oc- 
tavian was  master  of  the  world. 

Establishment  of  the  Empire.  —  The  conqueror,  well  assured 
of  his  strength,  made  no  haste  to  return  to  Rome,  but  employed 
his  time  in  establishing  affairs  in  the  East  upon  a  permanent  basis. 
Egypt  was  annexed  to  the  Empire,  which  now  embraced  the  entire 
circuit  of  the  Mediterranean  lands  with  the  exception  of  the  wild 
regions  of  Thrace  and  Mauretania,  and  the  free  republics  of  Lycia, 
Rhodes,  and  Massilia.  Octavian  returned  to  the  city  in  the  year 
B.C.  29,  and  celebrated  a  threefold  triumph,  —  one  over  the  Dal- 
matians, one  for  the  victory  of  Actium,  and  a  third  for  the  final 
subjugation  of  Egypt.    The  gates  of  the  temple  of  Janus  ^  were  now 

1  This  was  an  arched  passage  east  of  the  Forum,  the  gates  of  which  were 
opened  in  time  of  war.  Between  the  mythical  reign  of  Numa  (p.  15)  and  the 
present  time,  they  had  only  once  been  closed,  at  a  time  between  the  First  and 
Second  Punic  Wars. 


230 


OCT  A  VI AN. 


closed,  and  peace  reigned  through  the  world.  Two  years  later, 
Jan.  1 6,  B.C.  27,  Octavian  laid  down  the  extraordinary  power  of 
triumvir,  which  he  had  continued  to  exercise  until  this  time  with- 
out any  formal  extension  of  authority,  and  received  from  the 
Senate  the  name  of  Augustus.  This  was  the  commencement  of 
the  Empire. 


LICTORS. 


PERIOD   VI  —THE    EARLY    EMPIRE. 

CHAPTER    XVIII. 

AUGUSTUS. 
I,   The  Reign  of  Augustus. 

The  Dyarchy.  —  The  Empire  established  by  Augustus  was  not 
a  pure  monarchy,  such  as  JuUus  Caesar  had  planned,  and  Diocletian 
established  three  hundred  years  later.  The  government  was  still 
called  a  Republic ;  and  the  Emperor  (or,  as  he  was  more  properly 
called,  the  Prince)  was  a  magistrate,  all  whose  powers  were  derived 
from  those  of  republican  magistrates.  The  constitution  of  the 
early  empire  has  been  called  a  Dyarchy}  —  that  is,  a  government 
of  two  powers,  —  the  old  repubhcan  constitution  still  continuing 
in  operation,  and  a  new  magistrate,  the  Emperor,  exercising  an 
independent  authority  by  its  side.  It  may  be  compared  to  a  con- 
stitutional monarchy  hke  that  of  England,  where  the  substantial, 
power  belongs  to  Parliament,  while  the  sovereign  continues  to 
possess  some  remains  of  his  original  monarchical  authority.  In 
Rome  the  relations  were  reversed.  It  was  the  republican  institu- 
tions which  had  lost  their  vitality,  and  only  survived  as  a  shadow ; 
while  the  real  power  was,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  in  the  hands 
of  a  monarch,  the  Emperor. 

Prince  and  Senate.  —  The  title  Prince  designated  the  Emperor 
as  first  citizen;^  and  Augustus  took  pains  to  appear  with  the 
republican  simplicity  of  a  citizen,  not,  as  Julius  had  done,  with 

1  This  name  is  given  by  Mommsen  to  the  system  of  government  now 
established. 

2  This  title  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  republican  dignity  of  princeps  sena- 
tus,  although  this  too  was  enjoyed  l)y  Augustus. 


232  AUGUSTUS. 

the  ceremonial  of  royalty.  But  exclusive  authority  over  the 
armies  of  the  Republic  was  given  to  him  for  a  term  of  ten  years, 
and  then  renewed ;  while  the  tribunician  power,  granted  for  life, 
placed  him  in  possession  of  the  most  important  civil  functions. 
The  possession  of  this  twofold  authority  made  him  the  supreme 
power  in  the  state,  so  that  the  Senate,  the  organ  of  the  republican 
institutions,  nominally  his  equal,  was  practically  subject  to  his 
will.  What  survived  of  the  republican  institutions  was  now  vested 
in  the  Senate.  The  assemblies  gradually  lost  all  effective  par- 
ticipation in  public  concerns,  and  at  last  disappeared  entirely; 
but  the  Senate  never,  until  the  time  of  Diocletian,  ceased  to  have 
a  share  in  the  government,  and  on  various  occasions  it  made  itself 
the  organ  of  an  active  opposition  to  the  monarchical  power. 

Division  of  Power.  —  The  division  of  power  between  the  Prince 
and  the  Senate  is  seen  most  distinctly  in  the  government  of  the 
provinces.  As  the  Emperor  had  the  exclusive  command  of  the 
armies,  it  was  natural  that  those  provinces  which  required  a  mili- 
tary force  should  be  assigned  to  him.  He  governed  them  as 
Pompey  had  done  in  the  case  of  Spain  (p.  202)  by  deputies 
{legati\  residing  himself  at  Rome,  or  visiting  the  various  parts 
of  the  Empire  from  time  to  time.  The  rest  of  the  provinces, 
about  ten  in  number  (the  division  varying  from  time  to  time), 
were  governed  by  proconsuls  appointed  by  the  Senate,  as  in  the 
time  of  the  Republic.  The  senatorial  provinces  were,  as  was  natu- 
ral, the  oldest  and  most  orderly,  —  Sicily,  Africa,  Achaia  (Greece), 
Macedonia,  Asia,  Further  Spain,  Narbonnese  Gaul. 

The  Imperial  Praefects.  —  In  the  government  of  the  city 
(which  now  comprised  the  whole  of  Italy)  there  was  more  danger 
that  the  two  authorities  would  clash.  Here  the  Emperor  was 
represented  by  Praefects,  whose  powers  were  not  easily  dis- 
tinguished from  those  of  the  republican  magistrates.  One  prse- 
fect  had  charge  of  the  suppHes  of  corn,  another  of  the  City, 
while  a  third  had  command  of  the  emperor's  body-guard,  the 
Praetorian  Cohorts,  —  a  corps  of  nine  thousand  troops,  stationed 
in  Italy,  and  after  the  death  of  Augustus  concentrated  in  Rome. 


THE  FAMILY   OF  AUGUSTUS.  233 

It  followed,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  the  City  Prsefect  became 
in  reahty  the  municipal  chief  magistrate ;  and  that  the  Praetorian 
Praefect,  having  command  of  the  mihtary  forces  in  Italy  (where 
no  divisions  of  the  regular  army  were  stationed),  became  the 
chief  support  of  the  emperor's  authority,  and  rose  to  be  the  most 
powerful  subject.  These  two  praefects  drew  into  their  hands  almost 
all  judicial  authority,  and  before  long  the  magistrates  were  as 
powerless  and  shadowy  as  the  assembUes. 

The  Family  of  Augustus.  —  Augustus  had  cUmbed  to  supreme 
power  by  bloodshed  and  bad  faith ;  but  the  disappointments  that 
he  experienced  in  his  family  relations,  and  his  failure  to  transmit 
his  ill-gotten  power  to  his  descendants,  may  almost  be  regarded  as  a 
retribution.  Falling  violently  in  love  with  Li  via,  the  wife  of  Tibe- 
rius Nero,  he  obliged  Nero  to  divorce  his  wife,  and  then  married 
her  himself  (p.  189) .  But  Livia  brought  him  no  children,  although 
her  two  sons  by  her  former  marriage,  Tiberius  and  Drusus,  were 
received  into  his  family,  and  the  elder  was  finally  adopted  as  his 
successor.  Augustus  at  first  intended  the  succession  for  the  young 
Marcellus,  son  of  his  sister  Octavia ;  and  upon  the  untimely  death 
of  Marcellus,  he  looked  to  his  daughter's  posterity.  He  had  but 
one  child,  a  daughter,  Julia,  whom  he  married  to  Marcus  Agrippa, 
his  ablest  general  and  statesman.  But  the  two  eldest  sons  of  this 
marriage.  Gains  and  Lucius,  died  young;  while  a  third  son, 
Agrippa  Postumus,  was  so  dull  and  boorish  as  to  be  unfit  for  the 
throne.  When  Agrippa  died,  the  emperor  married  Julia  to  his 
step-son  Tiberius,  whom  he  required,  for  this  purpose,  to  divorce 
his  wife,  the  daughter  of  Agrippa.  This  marriage  brought  noth- 
ing but  misery.  Julia  was  vicious  and  bad-tempered,  Tiberius 
proud  and  sensitive.  To  escape  her  he  went  to  reside  at  Rhodes, 
where  he  remained  several  years ;  while  she,  after  a  lawless  and 
dissolute  life,  was  banished  by  her  father,  and  died  in  exile. 
Tiberius  was  now  adopted  by  Augustus,  associated  with  him  in  his 
authority,  and  designated  as  his  successor. 

The  Boundaries  of  the  Empire. — The  Roman  Empire,  at  the 
accession  of  Augustus,  comprised  nearly  all  the  lands  which  border 


234 


AUGUSTUS. 


upon  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  being  confined  within  natural  boun- 
daries in  three  directions,  —  on  the  west  by  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  on 
the  south  by 
the  African 
Desert,  on 
the  east  by 
the  Arabian 
Desert  and 
the  upper 
course    of 

the  river  Euphrates,  beyond 
which  was  the  Parthian  Em- 
pire. Upon  the  north  the 
boundaries  were  still  un- 
settled, and  it  was  here  that 
they  were  most  exposed  to 
assault.  It  was  the  great 
work  of  Augustus  to  establish 
a  frontier  upon  the  north  as 
secure  and  permanent  as 
were  those  in  the  other  direc- 
tions. At  the  very  beginning 
of  his  reign  he  annexed  the 
territory  upon  the  lower 
course  of  the  Danube  (the 
modern  Servia  and  Bul- 
garia), organizing  it  as  the 
province  of  Moesia.  As 
Julius  Caesar  had  conquered 
up  to  the  lower  Rhine,  this 
left  an  uncertain  boundary 
only  between  the  lower  Rhine 
and  the  lower  Danube.^ 


AUGUSTUS.     (From  the  Statue  in  the  Vatican.) 


1  See  Map  of  the  Roman  Dominions  at  the  end  of  the  Mithradatic  War. 
The  Roman  color  should  be  given  also  to  Egypt,  Numidia,  Cyprus  and  Gaul. 


FRO  ARTIER  S   OF  THE  EMPIRE.  235 

The  Danube  Frontier.  —  The  next  task  of  Augustus  was  to 
occupy  this  intervening  territory  north  of  Italy,  as  far  as  the 
Danube,  —  a  difficult  task,  because  the  hardy  mountaineers  of  these 
regions  made  an  obstinate  and  determined  resistance.  The  com- 
mand was  given  to  his  two  step- sons,  Tiberius  and  Drusus,  able 
and  energetic  young  men,  who  in  a  few  years  subdued 
the  country  from  the  Alps  to  the  Danube,  organizing  it  B.C.  15. 
as  the  provinces  of  Raetia  and  Noricum.  This  task  ac- 
complished, the  brothers  were  separated,  Tiberius  being  sent  to 
complete  the  occupation  of  the  Danube,  while  Drusus  should 
extend  the  empire  east  of  the  Rhine.  The  task  of  Tiberius  was 
soon  accomplished.  Northeast  of  Italy  a  low  and  practicable  pass 
by  the  Julian  Alps  (p.  i)  connects  the  lands  upon  the  Adriatic 
with  the  valley  of  the  Save,  the  principal  confluent  of  the  Dan- 
ube from  the  south.  This  valley  was  made  into  the  province  of 
Pannonia,  which  was  gradually  extended  to  the  north,  so  as  at 
last  to  reach  the  Danube  and  include  all  the  lands,  now  Western 
Hungary,  west  and  south  of  the  great  bend  of  that  river. 
The  conquest  of  Pannonia  was  completed  rapidly ;  but  B.C.  10. 
after  some  years,  a  formidable  revolt  called  Tiberius  to  A.D.  6. 
that  quarter,  and  occupied  him  for  three  years. 

The  German  Frontier.  —  In  Germany  it  was  the  policy  of 
Augustus  to  make  the  Elbe,  instead  of  the  Rhine,  the  boundary 
of  the  Empire.  By  this  the  great  mountain-chains  of  Bohemia 
and  Moravia  would  serve  as  an  insurmountable  barrier  against 
invasion  in  that  direction ;  and  the  northeastern  frontier  of  the 
Empire  would  extend  in  almost  a  direct  line  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Elbe  to  the  great  turn  in  the  course  of  the  Danube,  above 
Buda-Pesth.  These  mountain  regions  were  occupied  by  the 
German  nation  of  the  Marcomani  {fronfiersmeji),  who  were 
generally  friendly  to  the  Romans.  The  country  further  north, 
between  the  Rhine  and  the  Elbe,  was,  on  the  other  hand,  occupied 
by  warlike  and  hostile  nations,  who  presented  a  determined  resist- 
ance to  the  Roman  advance.  While  still  engaged  in  the 
work  of  conquest,  Drusus  died ;  and  Tiberius,  who  had       B.C.  9. 


236  AUGUSTUS. 

now  accomplished  the  conquest  of  Pannonia,  took  the  place  <  f 
his  brother,  and  completed  his  work.  Germany  from  the  Rhine 
to  the  Elbe  was  a  Roman  province. 

Check  to  the  Roman  Advance.  —  The  conquest  was  of  course 
a  superficial  one,  consisting  only  in  the  occupation  of  a  few  miU- 
tary  posts.  It  would  require  years  of  warfare  and  administration, 
as  had  been  the  case  in  Spain,  to  convert  this  military  occupation 
into  a  secure  possession ;  and  this  result  was  not  destined  to  be 
attained.  At  this  point  the  Roman  Empire  was  forced  to  take  its 
first  step  backward.  In  the  year  9  a.d.  the  governor  of  Germany 
was  Lucius  Varus,  a  brave  man  and  good  officer,  but  wholly  in- 
competent to  govern  a  people  like  the  Germans,  of  indomitable 
courage  and  a  proud  spirit  of  independence.  He  had  somewhat 
the  same  arrogant  contempt  for  the  irregular  warfare  of  a  half- 
civiHzed  nation  that  General  Braddock  had  for  his  Indian  antago- 
nists. He  was  warned  of  an  impending  insurrection,  but  he  could 
not  believe  that  the  unconquered  Roman  legions  had  anything  to 
fear  from  the  undisciplined  levies  of  barbarians. 

The  Fight  in  the  Teutoburg  Forest. — The  leader  in  the  uprising 
was  a  young  chief  of  the  Cherusci,  called  by  the  Romans  Arminius, 
w^hich  is  supposed  to  be  their  way  of  putting  the  German  name 
He7'mann.  He  had  served  in  the  Roman  armies,  and  knew  their 
strength  and  weakness.  He  had  made  formal  submission  to  the 
Romans,  and  was  favored  and  trusted  by  Varus.  When  all  his 
preparations  were  ready,  he  caused  the  news  of  a  revolt  among 
the  German  tribes  to  be  brought  to  the  Roman  commander,  who 
at  once  broke  up  his  camp  upon  the  Weser,  and  proceeded  by  an 
unfamiliar  route  to  suppress  the  uprising.  While  the  army  was 
making  its  way  through  the  wilderness,  it  was  suddenly  assaulted 
by  its  concealed  enemies.  The  fight  lasted  three  days,  and  ended 
with  the  complete  annihilation  of  the  Roman  army,  and  the  over- 
throw of  the  Roman  dominion  in  Germany.  A  few  years 
A.D.  U-16.  later,  Germanicus,  the  son  of  Drusus,  inv'aded  these  re- 
gions for  three  successive  years,  inflicted  vengeance  for 


DEATH  OF  AUGUSTUS.  237 

the  disaster,  and  recovered  the  lost  ensigns  of  the  legions.     But 
the  lost  dominion  was  never  regained.^ 

Death  of  Augustus.  —  This  was  the  greatest  disaster  which 
Augustus  ever  sustained,  not  merely  a  defeat  in  battle,  but  a  loss 
of  empire,  —  the  first  retreat  which  the  Romans  ever  made  from 
territory  which  they  had  once  occupied.  The  aged  emperor  was 
broken  down  by  so  terrible  a  reverse  at  the  close  of  his  life, 
suffered  his  beard  and  hair  to  grow,  —  a  mark  of  mourning,  —  and 
cried  again  and  again,  "  Quintilius  Varus,  give  me  back 
my  legions  !"  He  died  five  years  afterwards,  asking  his  a.D.  14. 
friends  in  his  last  moments  whether  he  had  not  played 
his  part  well  in  the  comedy  of  life.- 

His  Work.  —  The  work  of  Augustus  was  a  great  and  enduring 
one.  He  did  not  found  a  permanent  dynasty ;  and  the  emperors 
of  his  own  household,  who  succeeded  him,  have  not  as  a  whole 
left  a  happy  memory.  Moreover,  there  were  defects  in  his  political 
system,  which  at  last  brought  it  to  ruin.  But  it  had  a  long  and 
successful  life,  and  for  the  time  it  solved  perfectly  the  political 
problem.  Bringing  order  out  of  disorder,  inaugurating  a  period 
of  peace  after  a  long  and  bloody  civil  war,  ruling  with  remarkable 
tact  and  sagacity,  Augustus  impressed  his  contemporaries  power- 
fully with  the  feehng  of  his  greatness.  It  seemed  that  it  was 
only  to  Divine  Providence  that  they  owed  such  blessings ;  and 
while  he  never,  like  Julius,  allowed  himself  to  be  worshipped  as 
a  god,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  a  form  of  worship,  devoted 
to  the  deity  incarnate  in  the  emperor,  gathered  about  him,  and 
soon  became  the  principal  cult  of  the  provinces,  and  a  chief 
agency  for  maintaining  the  imperial  power.^ 

1  There  is  no  direct  evidence  as  to  the  locality  of  this  battle-field,  the 
Teutoburg  Forest;  but  it  was  probably  just  north  of  the  river  Lippe,  about 
half-way  betw^een  the  Rhine  and  the  Weser. 

2  Ecquid  Us  videretur  minium  vitae  commode  trausegisse  (Suet.,  Aug.  99). 
^  This  worship  of  the  Emperor,  hardly  known  except  from  inscriptions,  may 

be  regarded  as  the  distinctive  religion  of  the  Empire. 


238  AUGUSTUS. 


II.     The  Augustan  Age. 


The  Age  of  Augustus.  —  The  reign  of  Augustus  was  made  illus- 
trious by  a  group  of  writers,  in  prose  and  poetry,  and  by  a  splen- 
dor and  activity  in  art,  such  as  have  seldom  existed  in  the  history 
of  the  human  race.  This  period  marks  the  culmination  of  the 
Roman  genius  in  art  and  literature ;  and  although  the  Emperor 
had  little  to  do  personally  with  these  achievements  of  the  human 
mind,  yet  their  association  with  his  reign  fitly  gives  to  the  period 
the  name  of  the  Augustan  Age. 

Architectural  Works.  —  The  hand  of  Augustus  was  chiefly  seen 
in  the  buildings  with  which  he  adorned  the  city.  He  himself 
enumerated  twelve  temples  which  he  had  built,  besides  repairing 
eighty-two  which  had  fallen  into  decay,  and  building  or  restoring 
aqueducts,  theatres,  and  porticos.  This  work  of  construction  had 
been  begun  by  Julius  Caesar,  and  was  continued  by  his  successor — 
a  policy  which  reminds  us  of  the  great  public  works  of  the  Tar- 
quins,  and  still  more  of  the  rebuilding  of  Paris  by  Napoleon  III. 
The  architectural  display  of  Julius  and  Augustus  Caesar  was  one 
of  the  marks  of  the  new  autocratic  power.  His  example  was 
followed  by  other  noblemen,  so  that  he  could  boast  with  good 
reason  that  he  "had  found  Rome  of  brick  and  left  it  of  marble." 

The  Public  Squares.  —  The  Forum,  or  market-place,  had  be- 
come too  narrow  for  the  world-empire.  It  is  true,  the  less  elegant 
and  savory  branches  of  trade  had  found  a  home  in  new  market- 
places upon  the  banks  of  the  river  (p.  Z:^,  and  now  the  business 
of  the  Forum  was  confined  to  bankers,  brokers,  and  goldsmiths. 
But  the  public  business  encroached  more  and  more.  Special  halls 
of  justice  {basilicae,  p.  142)  had  been  built  along  its  sides,  to 
relieve  the  open  space,  and  now  the  Forum  was  nearly  surrounded 
by  magnificent  edifices.  The  most  important  of  these  was  the 
Basilica  Julia,  on  the  south  side  of  the  Forum,  where  its  founda- 
tions are  still  to  be  seen ;  it  was  begun  by  Julius  and  finished  by 
Augustus.  Julius  Caesar  also  commenced  that  noble  series  of  public 
squares  to  the  north  of  the  Forum,  which  was  continued  by  his  sue- 


BUILDINGS   OF   THE   AUGUSTAN  AGE.  239 

cessors,  ending  in  the  Forum  of  Trajan,  the  remains  of  which  still 
exist.  For  the  purpose  of  laying  out  the  new  Foj'um  Julium,  he  was 
obliged  to  move  the  Senate-house  to  a  point  somewhat  nearer  the 
great  Forum,  thus  making  the  Comitium  somewhat  narrower ;  at  the 
same  time  he  moved  the  rostra,  or  speaker's  platform,  from  its  old 
position  between  the  Forum  and  the  Comitium,  to  a  spot  near  the 
upper  end  of  the  Forum,  where  it  has  recently  been  uncovered. 

The  Campus  Martius.  —  The  Campus  Martius,  north  of  the 
Capitohne,  and  outside  of  the  walls  —  the  old  parade-ground  and 
field  for  military  exercises  —  was  also  encroached  upon  by  the 
new  building  activity.  The  theatre  of  Pompey,  the  first  stone 
theatre  in  Rome,  stood  here  :  it  was  in  one  of  the  apartments  of 
this  that  Caesar  was  assassinated.  In  the  northernmost  portion  of 
the  field  Augustus  constructed  a  mausoleum  for  himself,  a  circular 
building,  some  remains  of  which  are  still  in  existence.  The  princi- 
pal building  in  this  space  was  the  Pantheon,  or  temple  of  all  the 
gods,  built  by  Agrippa,  and  still  in  almost  perfect  preservation  as 
a  Christian  church  and  burial  place  for  distinguished  men. 

Roman  Art.  —  The  distinctive  feature  of  Roman  architecture 
was  the  Arch  (p.  30),  which  we  now  find  developed  into  the  Dome  ; 
this  noble  architectural  form  was  employed  in  the  construction  of 
the  Pantheon  of  Agrippa,  and  was  common  in  the  later  Empire. 
The  Greek  architectural  orders,  like  other  forms  of  Grecian  art, 
were  introduced  into  Rome,  and  most  of  the  temples  and  other 
public  buildings  erected  at  this  time  were  in  Greek  style.  But 
the  taste  of  the  Romans  was  too  crude  and  superficial  to  enjoy 
the  simple  grandeur  of  the  Doric  style,  which  satisfied  the  more 
highly  cultured  people  of  Athens ;  the  elegance  of  the  Ionic  and 
the  profuse  ornament  of  the  Corinthian  orders  pleased  them  better ; 
and  they  even  tried  their  clumsy  hands  at  inventing  a  mixed  style, 
known  as  the  Composite,  which  has  the  merits  neither  of  the 
Greek  nor  of  the  genuine  Roman  style.  In  other  branches  of  art 
the  Romans  showed  high  appreciation,  but  little  creative  power. 

Virgil.  —  In  the  field  of  literature,  the  foremost  name  of  this 
period,  and  one  of  the  most  distinguished  poets  of  all  time,  was 


240  AUGUSTUS. 

Publius  Vergilius  Maro,  better  known  as  Virgil.  This  poet  has  been 
in  former  ages  the  subject  of  extravagant  admiration,  and  is  at  the 
present  day  perhaps  unduly  depreciated.  He  is  not  a  great  crea- 
tive poet ;  he  must  be  placed  distinctly  in  the  second  rank.  He 
is  not  only  deficient  in  originality,  but  in  spontaneity,  and  in  truth 
and  profundity  of  insight.  The  reader  often  feels  that  his  descrip- 
tions of  nature  and  deUneations  of  human  passion  are  not  drawn 
from  his  own  experience  or  observation,  but  are  artificial,  —  copied 
from  earlier  poets  or  deduced  from  theory.  But  his  execution  is 
exquisite,  the  narration  spirited,  the  national  sentiment  strongly 
maintained,  and  the  tone  of  thought  elevated  and  inspiring.  By 
his  lofty  ethical  tone  and  his  earnest  patriotism  he  was  an  efficient 
coadjutor  with  Augustus  in  his  efforts  for  the  restoration  of  national 
life  and  character. 

^  Horace.  —  By  the  side  of  Virgil  stands  Horace,  perhaps  the 
most  popular  poet  who  ever  wrote,  the  most  perfect  master  of 
poetic  expression.  Nothing  can  surpass  the  grace  and  felicity  of 
his  style.  His  songs,  most  varied  in  spirit,  —  gay  and  pensive, 
devoutly  rehgious  and  earnestly  patriotic,  expressing  simple  affec- 
tion or  the  wildest  passion,  epicurean  indolence,  bacchanalian 
frenzy,  or  even  stoical  virtue,  —  are  the  models  of  lyric  poetry  for 
all  time :  while  his  satires  and  epistles  are  equally  models  of 
shrewd,  every-day  wisdom,  —  by  no  means  commonplace  poetry, 
but  what  we  may  call  the  poetry  of  the  commonplace. 
—  Ovid.  —  Far  below  Virgil  and  Horace  is  Ovid,  a  poet  with  a 
great  gift  of  narration,  but  whose  easy  flow  of  verse  is  apt  to  betray 
him  into  a  prosaic  diffuseness.  The  poetry  of  his  early  life  was 
luxurious  in  style  and  often  sensual ;  his  chief  work,  the  Metamor- 
phoses, contains  in  graceful  form  many  mythological  narratives 
which  otherwise  we  should  have  lost,  and  his  Fasti,  a  poetic 
calendar  of  the  year  (only  six  months  are  extant),  have  preserved 
from  destruction  many  details  of  the  native  Roman  religion.  For 
some  unknown  reason  he  was  banished  by  Augustus,  and  spent  his 
last  days  in  exile  on  the  western  shore  of  the  Black  Sea ;  from  this 
place  of  exile  he  sent  home  some  of  his  tenderest  and  truest  verses. 


LITERATURE    OF   THE  AGE.  241 

Propertius  and  TibuUus.  — The  works  of  two  other  poets  of 
this  period  are  extant,  small  in  amount  and  limited  in  style  ;  they 
are  exclusively  in  the  elegiac  measure.  Propertius  rose  at  times 
to  a  high  degree  of  dignity  and  power ;  but  he  was  over-fond  of 
metaphysical  obscurities,  in  imitation  of  the  Greek  poet  Callima- 
chus.  Tibullus  is  simple,  elegant,  tender,  a  writer  of  genuine 
merit  in  these  qualities,  but  with  no  range  or  variety  of  style. 
There  were  other  poets,  but  their  works  have  been  lost. 

Prose  Writers.  —  Of  the  prose  writers  of  this  period  —  orators 
and  historians  in  considerable  number  —  there  remain  only  por- 
tions of  the  works  of  two.  Livy  was  the  greatest  of  Roman  histo- 
rians, considered  simply  from  the  point  of  view  of  literary  excel- 
lence. He  was  as  far  from  the  modern  standard  of  historical 
criticism  as  the  other  historians  of  his  nation.  But  for  pictur- 
esqueness  of  style,  grace  of  narration,  and  sustained  interest,  there 
are  few  historians  of  any  age  who  compare  with  him.  Only  about 
one-third  of  his  works  are  preserved,  —  containing  the  early  period 
through  the  Samnite  wars,  and  the  Second  Punic  and  Macedonian 
wars ;  for  the  rest  we  have  bare  and  unsatisfactory  abstracts.  Of 
Nepos,  a  voluminous  biographer  of  this  reign,  we  have  only  a  few 
short  lives,  dull  in  style  and  of  little  worth. 

Maecenas.  —  If  this  age  is  the  Age  of  Augustus,  its  literature  is 
almost  equally  associated  v/ith  the  name  of  Gains  Cilnius  Maecenas, 
a  wealthy  knight  of  an  ancient  Etruscan  family,  a  chosen  counsellor 
of  the  Emperor,  and  a  munificent  patron  of  literature.  Maecenas, 
although  a  counsellor  of  the  Emperor,  had  no  taste  for  pubHc 
life,  and  preferred  to  live  in  elegant  retirement,  surrounded  by 
men  of  his  own  tastes.  Horace  and  Virgil  owed  to  him  much 
of  the  encouragement  which  induced  them  to  devote  themselves 
to  literary  composition,  and  his  name  is  so  indissolubly  associated 
with  their  poetic  productions,  that  it  has  come  down  to  us  as  a 
synonym  for  a  patron  of  literature. 

Statesmen  and  Orators.  — The  most  influential  statesman  of  the 
reign  of  Augustus  was  Marcus  Vipsanius  Agrippa,  a  man  of  inferior 
birth,  but  of  sterUng  qualities.     He  was  so  highly  esteemed  by  the 


242 


AUGUSTUS. 


Emperor,  that  he  married  him  to  his  daughter  Jiiha  (p.  233), 
designing  for  him  or  his  posterity  the  succession  to  the  throne  ; 
the  Emperor  Cahgula  was  his  grandson,  and  Nero  his  great-grand- 
son. The  most  distinguished  orator  of  the  time  was  Gaius  Asinius 
Polho,  whose  versatihty  of  talent  displayed  itself  also  in  the  fields 
of  arms  and  of  literature ;  he  was  a  poet  of  considerable  merit, 
but  none  of  his  works  are  extant.  In  public  life  he  was  character- 
ized by  a  strong  spirit  of  independence,  and  his  attachment  to  the 
memories  of  the  Republic  prevented  him  from  very  active  support 
of  the  new  Empire.  More  eminent  as  a  general  than  either  Agrippa 
or  Pollio,  and  also  a  friend  of  literature,  was  Marcus  Valerius  Mes- 
salla ;  he  was  especially  the  patron  of  the  poet  Tibullus. 


STREET    IN    POMPEII.     (A  Restoration.) 


THE   SUCCESSION    TO    THE    THRONE, 


243 


CHAPTER    XIX. 


THE   JULIAN   AND    CLAUDIAN    EMPERORS.i 

I.    The  Julian  C/ESars. 

The  Succession  to  the  Throne.  —  As  the  Roman  Emperor  was 
m  theory  not  an  hereditary  monarch,  but  a  repubhcan  magistrate, 
it  followed  as  a  matter  of  course  that  the  office  could  not  be  held 
by  a  woman.     The  hereditary  prin-  ____ 

ciple,  inherent  in  its  monarchical 
feature,  made  it  easy  to  transmit  the 
crown  to  any  male  member  of  his 
family ;  but  Augustus  at  his  death  left 
no  male  descendant  capable  of  taking 
up  his  work.  His  granddaughter, 
Agrippina,  was  a  woman  every  way 
qualified  for  it  —  by  ability,  character, 
and  ambition ;  and  in  a  true  monarchi- 
cal government  she  might  have  made  a 
Semiramis,  aZenobia,or  an  Ehzabeth. 
Her  husband,  Germanicus,  son  of  Drusus,  the  conqueror  of  Ger- 
many, was  a  man  of  many  imperial  qualities,  but  still  young  and 
inexperienced.  It  seemed  to  Augustus  expedient  on  the  whole  to 
give  the  succession  to  his  step-son  Tiberius,  designating  as  next  in 
the  succession  the  young  Germanicus,  together  with  his  cousin  of 
about  his  age,  Drusus,  son  of  Tiberius.^  For  this  purpose  Ger- 
manicus was  to  be  adopted  as  a  son  by  Tiberius. 

1  Tiberius  and  Caligula  were,  by  adoption,  descendants  of  Julius  Ceesar  in 
the  male  line,  and  therefore  compose,  with  Julius  and  Augustus,  the  Julian 
house. 

2  The  following  genealogical  table  of  the  Julian  and  Claudian  emperors, 
will  show  these  relationships. 


AGRIPPINA. 
(From  a  Coin  in  the  Berii 


244 


THE   JULIAN  AND    CLAUDIAN  EMPERORS. 


H> 


C  11 


> 

o 

o  s 


> 


<  5; 


2  ^ 


1^^ 


< 

2 

w 

II  — 

^ 

0 

i_4 

'Zi 

> 

B 

0 

Q 

CHARACTER    OF  TIBERIUS. 


245 


Tiberius,  14-37.  —  Tiberius  Claudius  Nero  therefore  ascended 
the  throne  in  the  year  a.d.  14.  He  was  a  man  of  fifty-six,  who 
had  shown  the  highest  quahties  as  a  mihtary  commander  in  Raetia, 
Pannonia,  and  Germany,  and  whose  hfe  until  this  time  had  been, 
if  not  irreproachable,  yet  without  any  serious  blemishes.  He 
showed  himself  as  able  upon  the  throne  as  in  the  field,  and  for 


TIBERIUS.     (From  a  Bust  in  the  Capitoline  Museum.) 

nearly  fifteen  years  ruled  the  Empire  with  consummate  ability  and 
sagacity,  consolidating  and  systematizing  the  administration,  and 
earning  the  credit  of  having  given  their  permanent  shape  to  the 
institutions  of  the  empire.  But  he  lived  too  long  for  his  own 
reputation.  He  was  by  nature  of  a  somewhat  moody,  suspicious 
disposition,  and  these  qualities  were  aggravated  by  the  dissensions 


246  THE   JULIAN  AND    CLAUD  I  AN  EMPERORS. 

with  his  wife  JuUa  (p.  233),  and  afterwards  with  Agrippina,  the 
widow  of  Germanicus.  By  degrees,  as  his  mind  lost  its  vigor,  his 
temper  became  gloomy  and  suspicious,  and  he  ended  his  life  as  a 
cruel  and  revengeful  tyrant. 

The  Delations.  —  The  tyranny  of  Tiberius  was  exercised  under 
the  forms  of  law.  He  was  a  scrupulous  and  rather  pedantic  ob- 
server of  forms,  and  the  rules  of  legal  procedure  in  Rome  lent 
themselves  to  great  abuses,  which  crept  in  by  slow  degrees,  until 
the  administration  of  justice  became  a  powerful  engine  of  injustice. 
The  Romans  had  no  public  prosecuting  officer ;  it  was  left  to  the 
interest  or  public  spirit  of  individuals  to  bring  criminals  to  justice, 
and  the  private  prosecutors  were  rewarded  for  their  services  by  a 
share  of  the  property  of  their  victims.  Hence  it  became  a  trade, 
and  a  very  lucrative  one,  to  hunt  up  offences  and  bring  them  to 
justice.  This  was  called  delation,  and  the  prosecutors  delators} 
Now  the  laws  for  the  punishment  of  treason  were  lax,  and  lent 
themselves  readily  to  the  practices  of  the  delators.  The  person 
of  the  emperor  being  sacred,  it  was  interpreted  as  treason  even  to 
subject  his  effigy  upon  a  coin  to  any  indignity,  to  flog  a  slave  in 
the  presence  of  his  statue,  and  other  acts  as  trifling  as  these. 
Hence  trials  for  what  we  may  call  constructive  treason  became 
more  and  more  common.  Tiberius  at  first  took  pains  to  pardon 
the  offenders  and  mitigate  their  punishment ;  but  as  the  practice 
became  more  rooted,  and  his  moral  sensibilities  became  blunted, 
he  ceased  to  oppose  this  miscarriage  of  justice,  and  even  seems  to 
have  encouraged  it.  The  activity  of  the  delators  is  the  greatest 
blot  upon  his  reign. 

Germanicus. — At  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Tiberius  his 
adopted  son  Germanicus  was  governor  of  Gaul  and  Germany,  and 
was  engaged  for  three  years  in  inflicting  vengeance  upon  the  Ger- 
mans for  the  defeat  of  Varus,  perhaps  with  the  expectation  of 
recovering  the  lost  territory.  At  the  end  of  the  third 
A.D.  16.  year's  campaign,  the  Emperor  wisely  decided  that  this 
was  a  hopeless  task,  and  the  Elbe  frontier  was  definitively 

1  From  deferre,  to  bring  information. 


GERMANICUS.  247 

given  up,  the  Rhine  being  now  made  the  boundary  of  the  Empire. 
Germanicus  was  transferred  to  the  government  of  the  East,  where 
the  relations  with  Parthia  made  it  important  that  there  should  be 
an  able  officer  in  command.  Here  he  shortly  died,  and  the  cir- 
cumstances of  his  death,  accompanied  by  a  violent  quarrel  with 
Piso,  his  officer  next  in  command,  inspired  his  wife  Agrippina  with 


GERMANICUS 


a  suspicion  that  he  had  been  poisoned  by  Piso,  with  the  connivance 
of  Tiberius.  From  this  time  her  sentiments  towards  the  Emperor 
became  more  and  more  unfriendly,  until  at  last  she  made  herself 
suspected  of  treasonable  designs,  and  was  involved  in  ruin,  together 
with  her  two  eldest  sons.     A  younger  son  and  daughter,  the  em- 


248 


THE   JULIAN  AND    CLAUDIAN  EMPERORS. 


peror  Gains  (Caligula)  and  Agrippina,  mother  of  the  emperor  Nero, 
were  afterwards  of  bad  eminence. 

^-Sejanus.  —  Tiberius  had  a  favorite  minister,  Sejanus,  pr^efect  of 
the  prietorian  guards.  He  was  an  able,  unscrupulous  man,  of  dar- 
ing ambition,  and,  to  further  his  own  ends,  he  took  pains  to  foment 
the  quarrel  between  Tiberius  and  Agrippina.  The  Empire  had  not 
been  long  enough  established  to  have  a  well-recognized  hereditary 
succession,  and  Sejanus  appears  to  have  conceived  the  design  of 
securing  the  throne  for  himself.  With  this  end  in  view  he  pro- 
cured the  murder  of  Drusus,  son  of  Tiberius,  and  brought  about 
the  overthrow  of  Agrippina  and  her  sons ;  he  then  aspired  to 
marry  Livia,  the  widow  of  Drusus,  who  had  been  his  agent  in  her 
husband's  murder.  He  had  already  persuaded  the  Emperor  to 
retire  to  the  island  of  Capri,^  where  he  spent  the  last  eight  years 
of  his  Hfe  in  seclusion,  leaving  the  government  in  the  meantime 
wholly  in  the  hands  of  Sejanus.  At  last  the  knowledge  of  his 
schemes  and  crimes  came  to  the  ears  of  the  Emperor.  The  situa- 
tion was  a  difficult  and  embarrassing  one ;  for  the  reins  of  power 
were  in  the  hands  of  Sejanus,  and  any  sudden  or  incautious  steps 
against  him  might  throw  him  into  open  rebellion.  By  a  secret 
commission,  appointing  Macro  as  Pr?etorian  Prsefect  in  his  place, 
and  by  a  long  and  obscure  letter  to  the  Senate,  only  by  slow  de- 
grees opening  to  that  body  his  desire  to  be  rid  of  Sejanus,  the 

Emperor  succeeded  in  accomplishing  the  hazardous  task. 
A.D.  31.      Sejanus  was  seized  and  strangled  in  prison,  and  his  body 

was  thrown  into  the  Tiber. 
Reign  of  Terror.  — The  alleged  plots  of  Agrippina,  and  the 
narrowness  of  his  escape  from  the  treason  of  Sejanus,  threw  the 
aged  Emperor  into  a  paroxysm  of  terror.  The  partisans  and 
friends  of  Sejanus  were  promptly  and  severely  punished;  and 
even  with  this  his  trepidation  did  not  end,  but  he  continued  year 

after  year,  banishing  and  putting  to  death  all  upon  whom 
A.D,  37.      his  jealous  suspicion  lighted.     At  last  he  died,  and  there 

1  N'ecera,  by  Graham,  describes  the  life  in  Capri. 


CALIGULA.  249 

was  a  momentary  gleam  of  hope  and  joy  at  the  succession  of  the 
young  son  of  the  beloved  Germanicus. 

Caligula,  37-41 .  —  Gains,  the  successor  of  Tiberius,  was  the 
son  of  Germanicus  and  Agrippina.  As  a  young  child,  he  had 
lived  with  his  parents  in  the  camp  in  Gaul  and  Germany,  and  had 
been  a  pet  of  the  soldiers,  who  called  him  Caligula,  —  the  name 
of  a  coarse  shoe  worn  in  the  army.  This  nickname  has  clung  to 
him.  But  whatever  good  qualities  he  may  have  inherited  from 
his  parents  were  lost  in  the  corrupting  life  of  the  camp  and  the 
court,  and  a  youth  passed  in  the  expectation  of  absolute  power. 
If  Tiberius,  in  his  last  years,  was  a  gloomy  tyrant,  Caligula  was  a 
capricious  and  wanton  one.^  His  head  was  turned  by  his  great- 
ness, and  indeed  his  acts  would  almost  show  insanity.  Divine 
honors,  which  Augustus  accepted  with  reserve,  and  Tiberius  con- 
stantly rejected,  Gains  eagerly  demanded,  sometimes  presenting 
himself  in  the  temple  in  the  guise  of  a  god,  and  demanding  wor- 
ship. He  delighted  in  bloodshed.  In  a  fit  of  passion  he  wished 
that  the  Roman  people  had  only  one  neck ;  and  at  a  banquet 
burst  into  laughter  at  the  thought,  as  he  explained,  how  speedily 
he  could  have  the  heads  of  all  his  guests.  This  grotesque  humor 
was  displayed  in  many  of  his  acts  of  cruelty.  He  craved  the 
excitement  and  notoriety  of  grand  achievements.  He  built  a 
bridge  from  the  Palatine,  where  he  resided,  to  the  Capitoline,  in 
order  to  have  readier  access  to  the  Capitoline  temple.  Another 
bridge,  three  and  a  half  miles  long,  he  constructed  from  Baiae  to 
Puteoli,  in  order  to  falsify  the  prediction  that  he  would  no  more 
be  emperor  than  he  would  drive  over  the  water  at  Baiae.  At  the 
dedication  of  this  bridge  he  caused  numbers  of  people  to  be  upset 
in  the  water,  and  then  thrust  them  off  with  poles,  so  that  they 
should  not  rescue  themselves.  Four  years  of  this  mad  tyrant  were 
all  that  could  be  endured.  He  was  at  last  assassinated 
by  an  officer  of  his  guard,  whom  he  had  goaded  to  fury  B.C.  41, 
by  constant  insults. 

1  Tiberius  had  said  of  his  subjects,  "  Let  them  hate  me,  provided  they 
respect  me"  {oderint  dum  probent).  Caligula  said,  "Let  them  hate  me,  pro- 
vided they  fear  me  "  {oderint  dum  metuanf). 


250  THE  JULIAN  AND    CLAUDIAN  EMPERORS. 

II.   The  Claudian  C^sars. 

Claudius,  41-54.  —  The  death  of  Cahgula  threw  everything  into 
confusion  and  uncertainty.  The  constitution  of  the  Empire  had 
made  no  provision  for  a  successor ;  and  the  Senate  hastily  con- 
vened to  consider  whether  the  Repubhc  should  be  restored,  or  an 
.emperor  chosen  from  some  other  family.  But  while  the  Senate 
was  deliberating,  some  soldiers  of  the  prcetorian  guard,  who  were 
engaged  in  plundering  the  palace  of  the  late  Emperor,  dragged 
out  from  a  place  of  concealment  a  middle-aged  member  of  the 
imperial  family,  so  insignificant  that  everybody  had  forgotten  his 
existence.  Recognizing  in  him  the  brother  of  the  popular  Ger- 
manicus,  they  proclaimed  him  emperor ;  and  the  Senate  had  no 
choice  but  to  accept  him.  Under  the  name  of  Claudius  he  reigned 
for  thirteen  years ;  and,  notwithstanding  his  physical  and  mental 
deficiencies,  his  rule  affords  a  refreshing  contrast  to  the  misrule 
of  Caligula,  who  came  before  him,  and  that  of  Nero,  who  followed 
him. 

Rule  of  Claudius.  —  Claudius  was  a  well-meaning  prince,  and 
his  mental  capacities  were  by  no  means  despicable  ;  but  they  were 
not  such  as  to  make  him  a  good  ruler.  In  some  respects  he 
resembled  James  I.  of  England.  He  was,  like  him,  a  man  of 
learning  and  acumen,  but  with  moral  qualities  which  made  him  an 
object  of  contempt.  He  had  from  childhood  been  neglected  and 
despised,  even  by  his  parents ;  and  by  this  his  natural  timidity 
and  weakness  of  will  had  been  morbidly  exaggerated.  As  emperor 
he  was  the  slave  of  two  wicked  women,  —  first  of  his  wife,  Messa- 
lina,  whose  name  has  become  a  synonym  for  female  depravity, 
and  then  of  his  niece,  Agrippina,  whom  lie  married  after  the  death 
of  Messalina,  and  who  at  last  poisoned  him  to  make  way  for  the 
succession  of  her  own  son.  Whatever  crimes  rest  upon  his  mem- 
ory are  for  the  most  part  to  be  attributed  to  the  imperious  desires 
of  these  women,  to  whom  he  had  not  the  power  to  say,  "  No." 

His  Public  Works.  —  Like  Caligula,  Claudius  had  grand  ideas, 
and  projected  magnificent  public  works  ;  but,  unlike  Caligula,  his 


CONQUEST   OF  BRITAIN.  251 

plans  had  in  view  public  utility  rather  than  self-indulgence  or  vain 
display.  The  most  beneficent  of  these  works  was  the  new  harbor, 
which  he  constructed  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber.  The  accumula- 
tions of  sand  had  so  choked  up  the  mouth  of  this  river  that  the 
old  harbor  of  Ostia  had  become  worthless ;  and  the  supplies  for 
Rome  had  to  be  landed  at  distant  ports  —  principally  at  Puteoli 
{Fozzuoli)  in  Campania  —  and  hauled  by  land  at  great  expense. 
By  cutting  a  new  channel  to  the  north  of  the  river,  building  out  a 
couple  of  jetties,  and  dredging  the  space  between,  Claudius  con- 
structed a  harbor  which  served  for  several  centuries.  He  also 
secured  the  water  supply  of  the  city  ^  by  repairing  the  aqueducts, 
and  drained  the  superfluous  waters  of  the  Fucine  Lake  by  a 
subterranean  passage,  thus  redeeming  a  large  tract  of  land  for 
cultivation. 

Conquest  of  Britain.  —  The  most  important  under- 
taking of  his  reign  was  the  conquest  of  Britain,  which  a.D.  43. 
he  annexed  to  the  Empire  shortly  after  his  accession. 
The  conquest  of  this  island  met  with  a  determined  resistance, 
as  is  shown  by  the  well-known  stories  of  Caractacus  and  Boadi- 
cea;  and  for  the  present  the  occupation  did  not  extend  much 
beyond  the  southern  half  of  England.  The  subjugation  of 
England,  Wales,  and  the  southern  part  of  Scotland  was  com- 
pleted by  the  distinguished  general  Agricola,  about  forty  years 
later.  This  province  remained  subject  to  Rome  for  nearly  four 
hundred  years,  and  the  numerous  remains  of  Roman  houses  and 
villas  found  in  England  testify  to  the  completeness  of  the  occupa- 
tion ;  but  the  people  of  Britain  did  not  assimilate  Roman  manners 
and  customs  and  modes  of  thought  as  thoroughly  as  those  of  Gaul. 
When  the  troops  of  Rome  were  withdrawn,  its  civilization  speedily 
disappeared. 

Nero,  54-68.  —  Claudius  had  by  his  wife  Messalina  a  son  of 
great  promise,  named  Britannicus  ;  but  the  ambitious  and  unscru- 

1  Caligula,  to  be  sure,  had  commenced,  but  Claudius  completed,  the  great 
Claudian  aqueduct,  the  ruined  arches  of  which  now  form  the  most  conspicuous 
feature  of  the  landscape  in  the  Roman  Campagna. 


252  THE   JUIJAN  AND    CLAUDTAN  EMPERORS. 

pulous  Agrippina  (daughter  of  the  elder  Agrippina  and  Germani- 
cus)  determined  to  secure  the  throne  for  her  son  by  a  former 
marriage,  whom  she  caused  to  be  adopted  into  the  imperial  family, 
so  that  he  is  henceforth  known  by  the  family  name,  Nero.  This 
young  prince  was  of  illustrious  ancestry,  being  descended  from 
Augustus,  Mark  Antony,  and  Drusus  ^  ;  but  he  appears  to  have 
inherited  only  the  bad  qualities  of  his  ancestors.  The  tyranny  of 
Tiberius  had  its  root  in  the  deterioration  of  a  sensitive  and  sus- 
picious nature ;  that  of  Caligula  can  be  regarded  as  the  mad 
freaks  of  an  unbalanced  mind  ;  that  of  Nero  was  pure  wickedness. 
Among  his  victims  were  Britannicus,  whom  he  had  supplanted,  his 
mother,  Agrippina,  his  wife,  Octavia,  his  tutor,  the  philosopher 
Seneca,  and  the  poet  Lucan.  His  reign  of  fourteen  years,  except 
the  five  years  at  the  beginning,  is  an  almost  uninterrupted  carnixal 
of  crime. 

Character  of  Nero.  —  The  most  conspicuous  mental  quality  of 
Nero  was  vanity.  He  piqued  himself  upon  his  ability  as  a  poet  and 
an  artist,  and  was  not  ashamed  to  exhibit  his  skill  in  public :  by 
this,  more  perhaps  than  by  anything  else,  offending  the  public  sen- 
timent of  Romans,  for  no  people  has  ever  insisted  upon  personal 
decorum  so  strongly  as  the  Romans.  His  vanity  was  not  confined 
to  these  higher  realms  of  art ;  he  even  entered  the  lists,  and  drove 
a  chariot  round  the  course  in  the  Circus  Maximus.  He  had  always 
had  a  passion  for  the  games  of  the  circus,  and  under  his  patronage 
the  craving  of  the  populace  for  these  exhibitions  was  gratified  to 
the  full.  Thus  while  he  incurred  the  contempt  of  the  nobles,  he 
was  popular  with  the  masses,  whose  demand  for  donations  and 
exhibitions  was  never  more  lavishly  gratified  than  now. 
" ""Rule  of  Tigellinus.  —  In  the  first  year  of  his  reign  Nero  was 
under  the  influence  of  the  philosopher  Seneca,  and  Burrhus,  the 
Praetorian  Pra^fect ;  and  during  this  period  his  administration  was 
good,  although  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the  credit  of  it 
belongs  to  him.     The  turning  point  in  his  career,  as  in  the  case  of 

1  The  wife  of  Drusus,  mother  of  Germanicus  and  Claudius,  was  Antonia, 
daughter  of  Mark  Antony  and  Octavia.     See  p.  243. 


NERO.  253 

Henry  VIII. ,  was  his  falling  in  love  with  a  fascinating  woman, 
Poppjea  Sabina,  for  whom  he  neglected  and  at  last  put  to  death 
his  wife.  From  this  moment  all  his  worst  qualities  came  to  the 
surface.  Burrhus  and  Seneca  were  succeeded,  in  their  influence 
over  him,  by  the  freedman  Tigellinus,  who  during  the  rest  of 
Nero's  reign  was  the  real  ruler  of  the  Empire.  This  infamous 
creature,  who  maintained  his  ascendency  and  amassed  riches  by 
pandering  to  the  worst  vices  of  his  master,  was  the  first  example  of 
a  class  of  favorites  who  obtained  a  bad  notoriety  under  the  Empire. 
The  slaves,  in  antiquity,  as  v/e  have  seen  (p.  89),  were  often  the 
superiors  of  their  masters  in  education  and  ability.  When  manu- 
mitted, they  did  not  become  entirely  free,  but  remained  the  "  cli- 
ents "  of  their  late  masters,  often  performing  for  them  services  of 
a  personal  and  confidential  nature,  as  steward,  secretary,  etc.  The 
tyrants  among  the  Roman  emperors,  finding  no  cordial  support 
among  the  nobles,  their  natural  counsellors,  made  use  of  freed- 
men,  who  were  by  necessity  wholly  subservient  to  them,  as  agents 
in  their  misgovernment. 

The  Fire  in  Rome.  —  In  the  year  64  Rome  was  laid  waste  by 
a  terrible  conflagration,  which  consumed  about  one-half  of  the 
city,  including  the  most  central  and  populous  portions.  Although 
Nero  was  absent  from  the  city  when  the  fire  broke  out,  and  used 
all  efforts  to  extinguish  it,  he  was  nevertheless  suspected  of  having 
himself  kindled  it,  in  order  to  enjoy  the  spectacle.  Either  to  pan- 
der to  a  popular  prejudice,  or  to  turn  suspicion  from  himself,  he 
accused  the  Christians,  who  were  a  small  sect,  mostly  of  the  lower 
classes ;  and  they  were  punished  with  horrible  tortures.  He  in- 
dulged his  taste  for  spectacular  displays  by  placing  them  in  the 
arena,  covered  with  pitch,  and  letting  them  be  burned  as  torches. 

Rebuilding  of  the  City. — The  city  had  already  been  burned  once, 
at  the  invasion  of  the  Gauls,  more  than  four  hundred  years 
before ;  and  by  a  curious  coincidence  this  fire  broke  out    B.C.  390. 
upon  the  anniversary  of  the  defeat  of  the  Romans  at  that      July  18. 
time.     After  its  first  burning  the  city  had  been  rebuilt 
hurriedly  and  without  system  or  order  (p.  72)  ;  the  work  of  re- 


254  THE   JULIAN  AND    CLAUD/AN  EMPERORS. 

building  was  now  placed  under  the  direction  of  skilled  architects, 
and  the  work  was  done  thoroughly,  elegantly,  and  conveniently.  The 
emperor  indulged  his  passion  for  luxury  and  display  by  taking  an 
immense  tract  of  land  from  the  heart  of  the  city  —  extending  from 
the  Palatine  to  the  Esquiline  Mount  —  for  a  private  palace  and  park. 
The  palace,  the  ''  Golden  House,"  upon  the  Esquiline,  was  planned 
upon  an  enormous  scale,  and  surrounded  by  a  colonnade  a  mile 
in  extent.    In  front  of  it  was  a  colossal  statue  of  Nero,  no  feet  high.^ 

Revolution.  —  The  misgovernment  of  this  monster  was  brought 
to  an  end  in  the  year  (i?>.  In  this  year  an  insurrection  under  Vin- 
dex  broke  out  in  Gaul,  and  the  governor  of  Hither  Spain,  Galba, 
was  forced  by  the  suspicions  and  unfriendliness  of  the  emperor  to 
associate  himself  with  the  insurrection  and  proclaim  himself  empe- 
ror. Soon  Verginius,  the  governor  of  Upper  Germany,  one  of  the 
noblest  characters  of  the  age,  lent  his  support  to  the  insurrection, 
and  the  Senate  took  courage  to  proclaim  Nero  a  public  enemy, 
and  condemn  him  to  be  put  to  death  "  after  the  manner  of  the 
ancestors  "  —  scourging  to  death,  followed  by  beheading.  He 
fled  from  the  city  to  take  refuge  in  the  villa  of  a  faithful  freedman, 
but  hearing  the  sound  of  the  horsemen  who  were  in  pursuit,  he 
ordered  his  freedman  to  slay  him.  Among  his  last  words  were  a 
lamentation  that  such  an  artist  should  perish.^ 

Literature  in  Nero's  Reign. — The  period  between  the  "Golden 
Age  "  of  Augustus,  and  the  revival  of  literature  which  is  known  as 
the  "  Silver  Age,"  a  century  later,  is  illustrated  by  few  productions 
of  importance  in  literature.  The  historical  works  produced  in 
these  years  have  nearly  all  perished.  Of  the  philosopher  Seneca 
we  have  already  spoken.  As  an  ethical  writer  he  has  high  qualities, 
but  is  verbose  and  inelegant.  There  were  two  poets  of  some  emi- 
nence. Lucan,  nephew  of  Seneca,  was  author  of  an  epic  of  great 
brilliancy,  entitled  Fharsalia,  marked  by  a  strong  repubhcan  senti- 
ment. He  was  one  of  the  victims  of  Nero's  tyranny.  Persius  was 
a  satirist,  heavy  and  obscure,  often  dull,  but  pure  and  moral  in  tone. 

'^  This  Colossus  was  in  the  valley  between  the  Esquiline  and  Cielian,  and 
gave  its  name,  Colosseum,  to  the  Flavian  Amphitheatre. 
^  Qiialis  artifcx  pereo  !  (Suet.,  Nero,  49). 


GALEA    TO    VESPASIAN.  255 


CHAPTER    XX. 

THE   FLAVIAN   HOUSE. 


Year  of  Revolutions.  —  Galba,  who  succeeded  to  the 
throne  by  this  revolution,  was  a  member  of  an  old  patri-      a.D.  68. 
cian  family,  a  man  of  the  genuine  Roman  stamp,  —  a  brave 
soldier,  an  honest  man,  but  advanced  in  years,  and  parsimonious. 
His  strict  discipline  and  the  meagreness  of  his  donations  excited 
the  dissatisfaction  of  the  praetorians  (p.  232),  who  soon 
murdered  him,  and  placed  Otho  upon  the  throne,  a  young      a.D.  69. 
man  of  dissolute  character,  a  boon  companion  of  Nero, 
but  brave  and  able  as  a  commander.     But  Otho  did  not  reign 
without  a  rival.      The   army  of  Lower   Germany   had 
already  proclaimed  its  commander,  Vitellius,  who,  after      A.D.  69. 
some  hesitation,  assumed  the  purple,  marched  to  Italy, 
and  defeated  the  army  of  Otho  in  a  battle  near  Placentia.     After 
his  defeat  Otho  slew  himself ;  and  Vitellius,  an  ignoble  and  glut- 
tonous man,  although  a  good  soldier,  occupied  the  throne. 

Vespasian,  A.D.  69-79.^  —  The  elevation  of  Galba  to  the  throne 
had  shown  that  emperors  could  be  made  elsewhere  than  at  Rome  ; 
and  now  the  East  came  forward  with  a  claimant,  who  was  of  the 
type  of  Galba,  and  whose  professed  object  was  to  avenge  him  and 
dethrone  the  unworthy  occupant  of  the  throne.  Titus  Flavius 
Vespasianus  was  engaged  as  commander  in  the  war  against  the 
revolted  Jews  when  he  was  proclaimed  emperor  by  his  soldiers. 
Judaea  had,  since  its  conquest  by  Pompey  (p.  196),  been  reckoned 
a  part  of  the  province  of  Syria,  although  usually  administered  by 
an  independent  procurator,  or  imperial  agent.  The  spirit  of  inde- 
pendence and  nationality  among  the  Jews  was  very  strong,  and  was 

1  Freeman's  article,  The  Flavian  Emperors,  in  the  second  series  of  his 
historical  essays. 


(%^ 


256 


THE   FLAVIAN  HOUSE. 


systematically  outraged  by  the  Roman  officials.  At  last 
A.D.  66.  they  were  driven  by  their  wrongs  to  rise  in  rebellion,  and 
Vespasian  was  entrusted  with  the  command  against  them. 
Vespasian  Emperor.  —  Vespasian  was,  like  Galba,  a  blunt  sol- 
dier, but  was  younger,  had  more  administrative  capacity,  and 
more  popular  manners,  although  he  was  ruder  and  less  humane. 
A  better  man  could  not  have  been  found  for  the  emergency,  for 
the  utter  incapacity  of  Vitellius  was  already  manifest.  Vespasian 
was  fortunate,  moreover,  in  havdng  the  support  of  the  governor  of 
Upper  Germany,  Verginius  (p.  254),  and  the  active  co-operation 
of  Mucianus,  governor  of  Syria,  who  acted  throughout  as  his 
lieutenant.     Leaving  Vespasian  to  settle  the  affairs  of  the  East, 


COIN    OF    VESPASIAN 


Mucianus  pushed  on  with  his  army  into  Italy.  Vitellius  was  over- 
thrown and  put  to  death  after  disorders  in  the  city,  in  the  course 
of  which  the  capitol  was  burned ;  and  Mucianus  administered 
affairs  until  the  arrival  of  the  new  Emperor.  Vespasian,  leaving 
the  Jewish  war  in  charge  of  his  son  Titus,  followed  leisurely  to 
Rome,  and  assumed  the  reins  of  government. 

Capture  of  Jerusalem.  —  The  ten  years  of  Vespasian's  rule 
were  a  period  of  peace  and  good  government  at  home.  Abroad, 
his  reign  was  disturbed  by  the  formidable  insurrection  of  Civilis  in 
Gaul,  and  by  the   capture  and  destruction  of  Jerusalem.     The 

1  The  letters  .S".  C.  show  that  it  was  coined  by  the  Senate,  which  retained 
the  right  to  coin  copper,  while  to  coin  silver  and  gold  was  the  prerogative  of 
the  Emperor, 


DESTRUCTION  OF  JERUSALEM. 


257 


Emperor  had,  during  his  three  years'  command  in  Judaea,  reduced 
the  whole  country  into  his  power,  except  the  capital.  Titus,  left 
in  command  on  his  father's  accession  to  the  throne,  invested  the 
city  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  70,  and  reduced  it  after  a  siege 
of  over  five  months,  attended  with  unutterable  horrors  of  blood- 
shed, famine,  and  conflagration.  The  fanatic  party  among  the 
Jews,  the  Zealots,  had  massacred  the  moderates  of  their  nation, 
and   now  confronted   the  invader  with   relentless  obstinacy.     At 


INTERIOR    OF   ARCH    OF   TITUS. 


first  they  intrenched  themselves  within  the  temple  ;  and  when 
this  was  captured  and  burned,  they  withdrew  to  the  heights  of 
Mount  Zion,  where  they  continued  the  defence  of  the  holy  city. 
When  this,  too,  fell,  and  its  buildings  were  destroyed  by  fire, 
Jerusalem  had  ceased  to  exist.  In  the  course  of  time  a  handful 
of  the  sunavors  returned  to  their  old  home,  and  built  for  them- 
selves humble   dwelhngs  among  its  ruins.      The  memories   and 

i  Showing  the  golden  candlestick  among  the  spoils  of  Jerusalem. 


258  THE  FLAVIAN  HOUSE. 

aspirations  of  the  race  were  kindled  afresh  ;  and  after  two  genera- 
tions had  passed,  they  even  ventured  to  measure  their 
A,D.  132.  strength  again  with  that  of  imperial  Rome.  This  was  in 
the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Hadrian ;  and  when  the  re- 
l)ellion  was  crushed,  as  it  was  certain  to  be,  it  was  decided  that 
the  very  name  of  the  sacred  city  must  disappear.  A  Roman 
colony  was  founded  upon  its  site,  named  ^-Elia  from  the  family 
name  of  the  Emperor,  to  which  was  added  Capitolina  in  allusion 
to  the  Capitoline  Jove. 

Architectural  Works.  —  On  his  return  to  Rome  lltus  celebrated 
a  triumph  for  his  hard-won  victory ;  and  a  few  years  later  a  tri- 
umphal arch  was  built  upon  the  highest  spot  in  the  Sacred  Way, 
on  the  walls  of  which  was  carved  —  still  to  be  seen  —  a  represen- 
tation of  that  sacred  candlestick  of  the  Jewish  temple  which  had 
been  carried  among  the  trophies  in  his  triumph.  The  greatest 
architectural  work  of  this  reign  was  the  Flavian  Amphitheatre, 
better  known  as  the  Colosseum,^  to  this  day  the  most  magnificent 
of  the  remains  of  ancient  Rome. 

Titus,  79-81.  —  Titus  succeeded  his  father  upon  the  throne  in 
the  year  79,  and  in  his  short  reign  of  two  years  won  all  hearts  by 
his  justice  and  humanity.  He  had  his  father's  military  gifts,  joined 
with  a  milder  and  more  kindly  disposition.  His  saying  is  well 
known,  when  any  day  had  passed  without  an  action  of  kindness, 
"  I  have  lost  a  day."  The  only  event  of  importance  in  the 
reign  of  Titus  was  the  sudden  renewal  of  volcanic  activity  in  Mount 
Vesuvius ;  the  tremendous  eruption  overwhelmed  an  immense 
area  of  ground,  including  the  two  populous  cities  of  Herculaneum 
and  Pompeii.  Great  portions  of  these  cities  have  been  disinterred 
within  the  last  century,  affording  an  instructive  view  of  the  streets 
and  buildings  of  an  ancient  city,  as  well  as  bringing  to  light  an 
innumerable  number  of  remains  of  art  and  utensils  of  every-day 
life. 

Pliny. —  In  this  eruption  perished  the  elder  Pliny,  the  most 
conspicuous  writer  of  the  day.  His  history  of  the  Germans  has 
1  It  had  its  name  from  the  Colossus  of  Nero,  which  stood  near  it  (p.  254). 


D  OMIT  I  AN.  259 

perished  ;  but  his  Natural  History,  an  ill-arranged  cyclopaedia  of 
scraps  of  information  of  every  kind,  is  preserved,  and  is  a  work 
of  very  great  value,  in  spite  of  its  confused  arrangement  and 
unscientific  spirit,  —  less  his  fault,  no  doubt,  than  that  of  an  age 
which  was  not  accustomed  to  the  orderly  and  scientific  arrange- 
ment of  modern  treatises.  That  Pliny  was  a  genuine  student,  who 
was  not  satisfied  with  hearsay,  but  wished  to  study  phenomena  at 
first  hand,  is  shown  by  the  circumstances  of  his  death.  Pie  left 
the  safe  retreat  from  which  he  could  have  quietly  observed  the 
eruption  at  a  distance,  and  went  boldly  to  its  near  neighborhood, 
where  he  was  suffocated  by  its  vapors. 

Domitian,  81-96.  —  The  happy  period  of  the  reign  of  Titus  was 
soon  passed ;  and  he  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Domitian,  a 
youth  whom  the  possession  of  unUmited  power,  joined  with  a 
naturally  cruel  disposition,  soon  converted  into  a  tyrant  of  the 
worst  type.  He  began  his  reign  as  a  reformer,  professing  himself 
—  and  perhaps  sincerely  —  anxious  to  correct  the  immoralities  of 
the  time  ;  but  he  seems  to  have  derived  so  much  enjoyment  from 
the  act  of  inflicting  punishment,  that  he  lost  sight  of  the  ends  of 
punishment.  In  his  reign  the  system  oi  delations  (p.  246),  which 
had  been  a  source  of  such  suffering  and  misery  under  Tiberius, 
was  revived,  and  reached  its  extreme  height.  In  the  year  96  he 
was  murdered  by  a  conspiracy.^ 

His  Foreign  Policy.  —  Nevertheless  Domitian  had  some  good 
quaUties  as  an  administrator,  and  some  events  of  his  reign  show  a 
certain  degree  of  statesmanlike  insight.  We  have  already  spoken 
of  the  briUiant  campaigns  of  Agricola  in  Britain  (p.  251),  which, 
it  is  true,  owed  littl^  to  the  Emperor's  support,  and  which  were 
even  unseasonably  cut  short  by  his  suspicious  jealousy.  We  may 
more  properly  place  the  rectifying  of  the  German  frontier  to  the 
credit  of  Domitian.  Upon  the  upper  Rhine,  between  the  prov- 
inces of  Raetia  and  Upper  Germany,  was  a  wedge-shaped  tract  of 
land,  —  the  modern  Baden  and  Wirtemberg,  —  which  had  never 
been  brought  under  the  authority  of  the  Empire.  Domitian,  by 
1  Eckstein's  QuiiUus  Claudius  describes  this  period. 


260 


THE   FLAVIAN  HOUSE. 


constructing  an  earthwork  and  line  of  fortified  posts  from  the 
Rhine,  near  Mentz,  to  the  Danube,  near  Ratisbon,  brought  this 
large  tract  within  the  boundary  of  the  Empire.  By  this  narrowing 
of  their  territory,  the  Germans  were  forced,  with  greater  rapidity, 
to  adopt  a  more  settled  agricultural  life,  and  were  hastened  in  their 
progress  towards  civilization.  These  tithe-lands  {Agri  Decuina- 
tes),  as  they  were  called,  were,  about  two  hundred  years  later, 
conquered  by  the  Alamannians,  and  severed  from  the  Empire. 

The  Twelve  Caesars.  —  The  twelve  emperors  from  Julius  Caesar 
to  Domitian  are  known  as  the  Twelve  Caesars,  merely  for  the  rea- 
son that  Suetonius,  a  writer  of  this  period,  wrote  their  collected 
lives  under  this  title.  The  name  Caesar,  being  assumed  by  every 
emperor,  became  a  general  appellation  for  them,  and  has  come 
down  to  the  present  day  with  that  meaning  as  the  German  word 
Kaiser, 


ROMAN    SOLDIER. 


NERVA   AND    TRAJAN.  261 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

THE   FIVE   GOOD    EMPERORS. 
I.   Trajan. 

Nerva,  96-98.  — Upon  the  death  of  Domitian  the  Senate  be- 
stowed the  imperial  title  upon  an  elderly  man,  one  of  its  own 
members,  by  the  name  of  Nerva.  The  only  important  act  of  his 
short  reign  was  the  designation  of  his  successor.  For  this  purpose 
he  selected  Marcus  Ulpius  Trajanus,  the  most  eminent  soldier  and 
most  capable  administrator  in  the  realm,  adopted  him  as  son,  and 
associated  him  as  colleague.  The  example  thus  set  by  Nerva  was 
followed  by  his  successors ;  and  in  each  case  the  choice  fell  upon 
a  person  of  such  high  character  and  qualifications,  that  it  has  been 
said  that  the  history  of  the  world  presents  no  example  of  a  period 
of  time  of  equal  length  so  distinguished  for  the  happiness  and 
prosperity  of  mankind.  The  last  and  most  distinguished  of  the 
"  five  good  emperors,"  Marcus  Aurelius,  unfortunately  had  a  son, 
to  whom  he  gave  the  succession ;  and  the  line  of  good  emperors 
was  terminated  by  a  besotted  tyrant. 

Trajan,  98-117.  — Trajan  was  a  warlike  emperor,  the  first  since 
Augustus  who  extended  the  bounds  of  the  Empire  by  conquest, 
if  we  except  the  occupation  of  Britain  by  Claudius.  For  some 
years  the  Dacians  north  of  the  Danube,  in  the  mountainous  region 
in  the  eastern  part  of  Hungary,  had  given  great  annoyance  to  the 
Romans,  and  had  endangered  the  provinces  upon  the  Danube. 
Trajan  subjugated  this  country  in  two  campaigns,  exter- 
minated the  population,  and  created  the  province  of  a.D.  106. 
Dacia,  which  he  peopled  with  colonists  from  the  Empire. 
Dacia  continued  to  be  a  Roman  province  for  about  one  hundred 


262 


THE   FIVE    GOOD   EMPERORS. 


and  fifty  years,  when  the  advance  of  the  Ooths  in  this  regio*n 
obliged  the  Emperor  Aurehan  to  withdraw  his  troops  to  the  south 
of  the  Danube,  and  give  up  the  province ;  but  the  Roman  lan- 
guage had  obtained  such  a  foothold  that  a  language  derived  from 
it  is  still  the  prevalent  tongue  in  large  parts  of  this  region.^  During 
the  course  of  the  Dacian  wars  Trajan  also  annexed  Arabia  Petraea, 
a  country  which  afforded  an  important  route  of  communication 
between  Egypt  and  Syria,  His  later  enterprises  were  of  less  per- 
manent v^alue,  although  in  appearance  more  splendid.     He  invaded 


the  Parthian  empire,  now  seriously  weakened  by  internal  decay, 
and  annexed  the  territory  as  far  as  the  river  Tigris  and  beyond  ; 
but  these  distant  regions  formed  no  natural  part  of  the  Roman 
dominion,  and  Trajan's  successor,  Hadrian,  wisely  gave  them  up. 
Portions  of  them  were  afterwards  regained. 


^  The  origin  of  this  "Rumanian  "  tongue  is  still  a  matter  of  controversy; 
but  even  if  the  province  was  completely  evacuated  by  Aurelian,  which  is  hardly 
possible,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  Rumanians  of  the  Balkan  peninsula 
are  in  part  at  least  descended  from  Trajan's  colonists. 


DECAY   OF  SOCIETY.  263 

The  Empire  at  its  Height.  —  I'he  Roman  Empire  was,  under 
Trajan,  at  the  height  of  its  power.  It  never  again  reached  the 
extent  of  dominion  to  which  he  carried  it  by  his  Dacian  and 
Assyrian  conquests.  Its  government,  moreover,  was  never  before 
or  after  so  humane  and  equitable  as  under  Trajan  and  his  three 
successors ;  and  the  morals  of  the  people,  under  these  happy 
influences,  steadily  improved.  Society  was  tired  of  the  beastly 
debauchery  which  characterized  the  first  century  of  the  Empire, 
and  there  seems  httle  doubt  that  there  was  less  vice  at  the  end 
of  this  period  than  one  hundred  or  two  hundred  years  before. 

Economic  Decay.  —  Nevertheless,  even  as  early  as  this,  we  begin 
to  see  indications  of  an  economic  decay  of  society.  The  most 
distinct  sign  of  this  is  in  the  financial  distress  of  the  Italian  cides 
at  this  date.  The  cities,  as  we  have  seen  (p.  159),  were  not  scat- 
tered and  isolated  municipalities,  like  those  of  modern  times,  but 
were  territorial  divisions  of  the  entire  country.  The  whole  popu- 
lation of  Italy  was,  therefore,  contained  in  these  municipalities ; 
and  when  it  is  said  that  the  municipaHties  had  fallen  into  financial 
embarrassment,  this  means  that  the  whole  population  of  Italy  was 
in  a  condition  of  economic  distress.  The  extravagance  of  the 
early  Empire  and  the  collapse  of  native  Italian  industry  (p.  149), 
which  went  on  under  the  Empire  with  increased  rapidity,  were 
having  their  natural  effects.  The  worst  feature  of  this  was,  how- 
ever, that  the  municipal  governments  showed  themselves  so  in- 
capable of  dealing  with  these  financial  difficulties  that  the  Emperor 
was  obhged  to  appoint  commissioners  (ycuratores)  to  inspect  and 
regulate  their  accounts.  In  this  way  some  degree  of  prosperity 
was  restored,  but  self-government  had  proved  a  failure. 

Decay  of  the  Peasantry.  —  An  effort  was  made  to  check  the 
decay  of  the  free  peasantry  by  a  system  of  poor  relief,  called 
alimentationes,  introduced  at  this  period.  In  order  to  relieve  the 
embarrassments  of  the  land-owners  and  the  municipalities,  loans 
were  made  to  them  by  the  state,  which  took  mortgages  of  their 
lands.  Through  this  agency  provision  was  also  made  for  the  sup- 
port of  poor  children  of  the  neighborhood.     In  this  way  it  was 


3 


264  T//E  FIVE    GOOD  EMPERORS. 

hoped  to  protect  the  peasantry  from  the  encroachments  of  capital. 
But  the  scheme,  beneficent  no  doubt  for  the  time  and  in  individual 
cases,  could  not  check  a  tendency  which  was  the  inevitable  conse- 
quence of  slave  labor  and  the  degradation  of  industry.  The  peas- 
antry steadily  sank  in  status  until,  in  the  century  following,  it  is 
found  reduced  to  a  condition  of  "  predial  serfdom  "  ;  that  is,  a 
condition  in  which,  without  legally  ceasing  to  be  freemen,  they 
were  held  under  an  hereditary  obligation  to  labor  upon  certain 
lands  to  which  they  were  bound  {astricH  glcbae)} 

The  Silver  Ag^e.  — The  reign  of  Trajan  not  merely  marks  the 
highest  degree  of  power  and  dominion  reached  by  the  Roman 
Empire,  but  presents  that  unerring  mark  of  national  vitality,  a 
strong  and  original  literature.  The  style  of  composition  and  the 
forms  of  language  had  changed  considerably  since  the  time  of 
Augustus,  as  must  necessarily  be  the  case  where  there  is  a  genuine 
national  life.  The  age  of  Trajan  has  been  called  the  "Silver  Age," 
to  distinguish  it  from  the  "Golden  Age"  of  Augustus;  but  for 
originality  and  vigor  and  many  of  the  best  qualities  of  style,  the 
writers  of  this  period  are  not  unworthy  to  rank  with  those  of  a 
century  before.  The  busy  and  practical  Silver  Age  excelled  in 
prose  writers  :  its  poets  were  for  the  most  part  of  inferior  type. 
—^Tacitus. — The  greatest  Hterary  name  of  this  period  is  that  of 
the  historian,  Tacitus,  whose  writings  contained  an  account  of  the 
events  of  the  Empire  from  the  death  of  Augustus.  Only  about  a 
third  of  them,  however,  are  extant.  His  most  marked  character- 
istics as  an  historian  are  his  wonderful  picturesqueness  and  his 
intense  moral  earnestness,  qualities  in  which  few  historians  of  any 
age  have  equalled  him.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  strength  of 
his  moral  convictions,  joined  with  the  lack  of  critical  acumen 
which  ])elonged  to  his  age,  make  him  often  prejudiced  and  unjust ; 
but  there  is  no  reason  to  impugn  his  motives.     Mis  account  of 

1  The  serfs  of  the  later  Roman  Empire  were  known  as  coloni,  and  their 
condition  as  colonahis.  The  origin  of  this  institution  is  very  obscure;  the  l)est 
discussion  of  the  subject  (although  still  nt)t  wholly  satisfactory)  is  found  in 
Coulanges'  Recherches  sur  quelques  problem cs  d7ii stair e. 


THE   SILVER  AGE.  265 

the  reigns  of  Tiberius  and  Nero  and  of  the  disturbed  events  which 
followed  the  death  of  Nero  are  priceless  treasures  of  hterature. 

The  Younger  Pliny.  —  A  contemporary  and  intimate  friend  of 
Tacitus  was  the  younger  Pliny,  whose  published  correspondence 
places  before  us  a  picture  of  the  times,  unequalled  in  ancient  his- 
tory except  for  the  correspondence  of  Cicero.  It  is  from  two  of 
his  letters  that  we  derive  our  information  of  the  death  of 
his  uncle  in  the  eruption  of  Vesuvius  (p.  258)  ;  and  his  a,D.  79. 
official  correspondence  with  Trajan,  when  he  was  gov- 
ernor of  the  province  of  Bithynia,  contains  a  complete  picture 
of  the  administration  of  a  province  of  the  second  rank.  The 
broad  humanity  and  modern  spirit  of  Pliny  contrast  him  with 
almost  all  other  writers  of  pagan  antiquity. 

Quintilian.  — A  prose  writer,  somewhat  earher  in  time  and  of 
great  and  enduring  influence,  was  Quintilian,  whose  treatise  upon 
rhetoric  is  one  of  the  soundest  and  most  complete  in  existence.  In 
the  deterioration  of  literature  and  of  intellectual  life  which  followed 
shortly,  the  influence  of  Quintilian  was  soon  lost ;  but  his  book  has 
in  modern  times  been  an  exhaustless  mine  of  sagacious  criticism. 

Juvenal.  —  The  greatest  name  in  the  poetry  of  this  period  is 
that  of  Juvenal,  the  satirist.  His  works  are  not  voluminous  ;  but 
as  satire  was  the  most  original  branch  of  Roman  literature,  and 
Juvenal  was  the  greatest  Roman  writer  of  satire,  he  may  in  a  cer- 
tain sense  rank  as  the  most  distinctive  Roman  author.  There  is 
a  marked  contrast  between  him  and  his  greatest  forerunner,  Horace 
(p.  240),  whose  satire  was  genial,  good-natured,  in  keeping  with 
the  easy  epicureanism  of  its  author.  Far  surpassing  Persius  (p. 
254)  in  poetic  merit,  Juvenal  was  inspired  with  an  equal  ethical 
passion  ;  his  writings  fairly  burn  with  indignation  and  intensity  of 
conviction.  It  is  easy  to  believe  that  writers  of  so  strongly  moral 
tone  as  Tacitus  and  Juvenal  had  a  large  share  in  raising  society  to 
that  higher  moral  plane  in  which  we  find  it  a  generation  or  two  later. 

Lesser  Writers.  —  Of  the  writers  of  less  reputation  we  need 
say  only  a  few  words.  Frontinus,  a  statesman  and  general  of  great 
merit,  has  left  two  short  works,  containing  much  information  and 


266 


THE  FIVE    GOOD   EMPERORS. 


practical  knowledge,  —  one  is  an  account  of  the  Roman  aqueducts, 
the  other  a  scrap-book  of  military  anecdote.  The  epigrammatist 
Martial  is  brilliant  and  witty,  often  indecent.  His  writings  are 
of  great  value  as  a  picture  of  society  ;  only  the  reader  must  bear 
in  mind  that  it  was  Martial's  aim  to  find  objects  of  entertainment 
and  ridicule,  and  that  his  delineations,  like  those  of  Juvenal, 
present  only  one  phase  of  life,  and  that  the  worst.  Statins  was  a 
court  poet  of  great  popularity,  but  showy  and  inflated  in  style. 
Silius  Italicus  wrote  a  poem  upon  the  Second  Punic  War,  rather  a 
dull  performance,  but  containing  some  acceptable  information. 


SIEGE    OF    A    DACIEN    STRONGHOLD.      (From   Trajan's   Column.) 


Art.  —  Art,  too,  in  this  century  had  a  vigorous  hfe.  There  was 
no  great  school  of  art,  perhaps  there  were  no  artistic  creations  of 
the  highest  merit.  But  the  taste  and  the  technical  skill,  inherited 
from  earlier  periods,  kept  the  art  of  the  second  century  at  a  high 
standard.  This  is  especially  marked  in  the  bas-reliefs  of  this 
period,  which  are  numerous  and  well  preserved.  The  most  sig- 
nificant monuments  of  the  time  are  the  columns  of  Trajan  and 
Marcus  Aurelius.  The  reliefs  which  clothe  these  columns  from 
top  to  bottom  are  not  only  admirable  works  of  art,  but  an  inex- 
haustible mine  of  information,  in  their  graphic  representations  of 
the  actions  of  war  and  peace. 


THE    CHRISTIANS.  261 

The  Christians.  —  One  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  letters  of 
PHny  is  one  in  which  he  consults  the  Emperor  as  to  the  treatment 
of  the  Christians,  who  had  now  become  somewhat  numerous  in 
the  East.  The  Romans  were  not  intolerant  in  religion.  They 
readily  accepted  the  religion  of  every  people  with  whom  they  came 
in  contact,  and  incorporated  it  with  their  own.  We  have  seen  this 
in  the  case  of  ^sculapius  (p.  95),  the  Great  Mother  (p.  129), 
etc.  As  the  Empire  had  become  a  world  empire,  gathering  in  all 
nations  under  its  organization,  it  aspired  to  make  its  religion  a 
world  religion,  embracing  all  national  religions.  But  Judaism  and 
Christianity  could  not  be  thus  incorporated.  Their  fundamental 
tenet,  the  unity  of  the  divine  nature,  was  incapable  of  accommodat- 
ing itself  to  the  loose  polytheistic  notions  of  the  Romans.  Their 
God  could  not  be  placed  on  the  same  footing  with  Jupiter,  Mars, 
and  Apollo.  But  even  this  need  not  have  led  to  persecution, 
because  the  easy-going  faith  of  the  people  took  little  notice  of 
strange  and  individual  forms  of  religion.  There  were  large  num- 
bers of  Jews  residing  in  Rome  during  the  Republic,  and  their 
worship  was  not  disturbed.  It  was  not  until  the  deification  of  the 
Emperor  (p.  237),  and  the  insistence  upon  his  cult  as  the  duty 
of  a  patriotic  citizen,  that  there  was  any  motive  to  persecute. 
The  man  w^ho  would  not  sacrifice  at  the  altar  of  the  Emperor  was 
no  good  citizen.  A  Christian  could  not  so  sacrifice,  and  was 
punished,  —  not  as  a  Christian,  but  as  disloyal. 

Policy  towards  the  Christians.  —  As  a  rule,  the  government  took 
little  notice  of  these  sectaries.  It  was  not  until  they  became  numer- 
ous, organized,  and  self-assertive,  that  the  arm  of  the  law  was 
stretched  out  against  them.  The  Jews  w^ere  few  and  quiet ;  and 
they  were  generally  let  alone,  as  were  also  the  Christians,  unless 
there  was  special  reason  to  molest  them.  For  the  most  part,  the 
policy  pursued  was  the  compromise  prescribed  by  Trajan  in  his 
answer  to  PHny.  The  governor  had  testified  to  the  harmlessness 
and  good  character  of  the  Christians,  but  also  to  their  obstinacy 
and  impiety.  The  Emperor  tells  him  not  to  make  any  effort  to 
trace  them  out  and  bring  them  to  justice ;  but,  if  they  are  brought 


268 


THE   FIVE    GOOD  EMPERORS. 


before  him,  the  law  must  take  its  course.  The  law  under  which 
the  Christians  were  punished  at  this  time  was  that  which  forbade 
unlicensed  associations.^  It  was  in  Trajan's  reign  that 
A.D.  115.  occurred  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  noted  of  the 
Christian  martyrdoms  —  that  of  Ignatius  of  Antioch,  who 
was  thrown  to  the  lions  in  Rome. 

Hadrian,  117-138.  —  Hadrian,-  the  successor  of  Trajan,  was  a 
ruler  as  strongly  contrasted  as  possible  with  his  predecessor,  but 
perhaps  of  a  type  more  needed  by  the  age.  His  reign  was  a 
period   of  peace.     While  Trajan  carried  his   arms  with   restless 

activity  and  brilliant  success  to  all 
parts  of  the  frontier,  Hadrian  dis- 
played as  unwearied  an  activity  in 
traversing  the  Empire  from  one  end 
to  the  other,  personally  examining 
its  situation,  and  putting  it  in  the 
best  condition  for  administration  and 
protection.  He  seems  to  have  felt, 
what  proved  to  be  the  case,  that  the 
attitude  of  the  Empire  after  this 
time  would  be  one  of  defence.  No 
emperor  after  Trajan  attempted,  with 
any  success,  to  enlarge  the  bounds 
of  the  Empire.  Hadrian  surrendered 
the  three  new  provinces  upon  the 
East,  and  made  the  Euphrates  and 
the  desert  again  the  boundary  in  this 
direction ;  ^  and  after  a  brief  period 
of  peace,  under  Hadrian  and  his  suc- 
cessor, the  series  of  aggressions  by 
foreign  powers  commenced,  before 
which  the  Empire  finally  succumbed. 


HADRIAN. 


1  See  Hardy's  Correspondence  of  Pliny  and  Prajan  (p.  243). 

^  Ebers'  The  Emperor. 

3  These  territories  were  partly  regained  by  Marcus  Aurelius,  see  p.  270. 


THE   ANTONINES.  269 

Hadrian's  Wall.  —  The  most  interesting  work  of  defence  which 
we  associate  with  Hadrian  is  a  wall  and  Une  of  fortified  posts  across 
the  narrow  part  of  Britain,  similar  to  that  which  Domitian  had  con- 
structed in  Germany.  The  remains  of  this  great  work,  extending 
from  the  Tyne  to  the  Sohvay,  at  nearly  the  modern  boundary 
between  England  and  Scotland,  are  still  to  be  traced  in  nearly  their 
whole  extent.  Hadrian's  successor,  Antoninus  Pius,  extended  the 
frontier,  and  built  a  new  wall  between  the  Clyde  and  the  Forth. 

n.   The  Antonines. 

Antoninus    Pius,   A.D.  138-161.— 

Antoninus  Pius  was  a  man  of  noble  and 
benign  countenance,  and  his  character 
corresponded  to  his  features.  His  reign 
of  twenty-three  years  is  marked  by  no 
striking  events ;  but  in  its  unvarying 
justice  and  humanity,  it  affords,  perhaps, 
the  best  illustration  in  history  of  the 
familiar  saying,    "  Happy  is  the  people  antoninus  pius. 

whose  annals  are  uninteresting."  ^^^°"^  ^  ^°'" '"  '^^  ^^^""  ^^^^^^■') 

Marcus  Aurelius,  A.D.  161-180.^  —  Marcus  Aurelius,  the  adopted 
son  and  successor  of  Antoninus  Pius,  was  equal  to  his  predecessor 
in  virtue,  and  perhaps  even  superior  to  him  in  conscientious  devo- 
tion to  duty.  His  tastes  were  studious,  and  he  delighted  in  the 
pleasures  of  family  life ;  but  he  set  aside  his  preferences,  and 
devoted  himself  unremittingly  to  the  duties  of  war  and  adminis- 
tration, which  his  station  imposed  upon  him.  His  eminence  in 
literature  has  given  him  the  tide  of  "  the  philosopher  "  ;  but  when 
he  was  called  from  his  books  into  active  life,  he  showed  himself 
equally  able  as  a  soldier  and  administrator.  Philosophy  was  always 
his  favorite  pursuit ;  and  at  the  very  end  of  his  life  he  composed 
a  treatise  upon  practical  morality,  The  Thoughts,  which  is  to  this 

1  Watson's  Maj'cus  Aurelius  is  the  best  account  of  this  Emperor  in  English. 


270  JIJE   FIVE    GOOD   EMPERORS. 

day   read   and  valued    for   its    lofty   ethical    teaching  and    tonic 
power. ^ 

Reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius.  —  It  was  a  hard  fate  which  associ- 
ated this  upright  and  conscientious  prince  with  the  most  disturbed 
and  calamitous  events  of  the  century,  and  has  made  his  reign  a 
critical  moment  in  the  downfall  of  the  Empire.  After  the  long 
period  of  quiet  and  prosperity  under  Hadrian  and  Antoninus  Pius, 
the  Empire  suddenly  found  itself  disturbed  by  war  and  rebellion, 
famine,  pestilence,  and  religious  dissensions ;  and  in  respect  to 
each  of  these,  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius  may  be  regarded  as 
a  turning-point  in  the  history  of  Roman  society.  In  three  special 
fields,  —  the  economic  interests  of  society,  the  progress  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  the  relations  to  the  German  barbarians,  —  we  find 
here  noteworthy  and  critical  events. - 

Lucius  Verus.  —  In  accordance  with  an  arrangement  made  by 
the  Emperor  Hadrian,  Marcus  associated  with  himself  as  colleague 
a  young  man  named  Lucius  Verus ;  but  the  selection  was  an  un- 
fortunate one,  as  Lucius  was  wholly  unfitted  for  the  responsibility 
and  labors  of  the  imperial  throne.  Fortunately  he  died 
A.D,  169.  within  a  few  years,  leaving  Marcus  in  sole  possession  of 
the  power.  During  the  first  portion  of  his  short  reign 
Lucius  was  nominally  in  charge  of  a  war  against  the  Parthians, 
the  real  command  being  in  the  hands  of  his  lieutenant,  Avidius 
Cassius.  Cassius,  a  general  of  great  ability,  gained  distinguished 
successes,  capturing  both  the  Parthian  capitals,  Seleucia  and 
Ctesiphon,  and  forcing  from  the  enemy  the  cession  of  the  left 
bank  of  the  Euphrates. 

The  Pestilence.  —  The  victorious  army,  on  its  return 
A.D.  166.    to  the  West,  brought  with  it  that  most  dreadful  of  orien- 
tal scourges,  the  plague.     This  was  the  first,  and  perhaps 
the  most  destructive,  of  a  long  succession  of  such  visitations  from 

1  The  religious  life  of  this  time  is  portrayed  with  remarkable  truthfulness 
and  delicacy  in  Pater's  Marius  the  Epicurean. 

^  For  these  causes  of  decay,  read  the  second  of  the  lectures  in  Seeley's 
Roman  Imperialism. 


PERSECUTION   OF   THE    CHRISTL4XS.  271 

the  East,  the  last  being  the  oriental  cholera,  within  the  present 
century.  Whether  the  present  was  the  most  destructive  of  the 
series  or  not,  it  was  certainly  the  most  fatal  in  its  consequences ; 
for  the  Empire  never  rallied  from  the  losses  which  it  now  sus- 
tained. We  have  already  noticed  (p.  263)  the  loss  of  economic 
vigor  in  the  second  century.  This  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
arrested,  even  during  the  long  period  of  good  government  through 
which  the  Empire  had  just  passed.  Population  could  not  increase, 
could  barely  hold  its  own,  under  such  circumstances.  In  the  reign 
of  Marcus  new  causes  of  decline  were  at  work.  A  few 
years  before  the  pestilence  an  inundation  of  the  Tiber,  a,D,  162. 
unprecedented  in  extent  and  destructiveness,  had  been 
followed  by  distress  and  famine.  To  this  were  now  added  the 
horrors  of  the  pestilence,  which  carried  off  perhaps  half  the  popu- 
lation of  Italy.  And  as,  just  at  this  time,  the  necessities  and  embar- 
rassments of  the  government  were  greatly  increased  by  the  German 
invasions,  it  will  be  seen  that  this  pestilence  was  a  factor  of  the 
first  importance  in  the  downfall  of  the  Empire.  With  a  diminishing 
population  and  diminishing  resources,  the  emperors  of  the  third 
century  found  themselves  called  upon  to  meet  constantly  increas- 
ing dangers  and  difficulties.  C 

The  Christians.  —  In  all  times  of  great  disaster  the  ignorant' 
populace  are  disposed  to  throw  the  blame  upon  some  obnoxious 
or  unpopular  class ;  and  in  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  it  was 
easy  to  turn  the  popular  suspicion  against  the  growing  sect  of 
Christians.  The  gods,  it  was  thought,  must  have  sent  these  re- 
peated calamities,  —  war,  inundation,  famine,  pestilence,  barbarian 
inroad,  —  as  a  punishment  for  some  national  guilt ;  and  this  could 
be  nothing  but  the  toleration  of  this  impious  and  atheistic  sect. 
For,  it  was  reasoned,  men  who  deserted  the  temples,  and  refused 
to  worship  the  gods  under  whose  protection  the  state  had  prospered, 
were  of  necessity  impious  and  atheistic.  The  Roman  religion  was 
not  by  nature  intolerant,  x^s  we  have  seen  (p.  267),  it  permitted 
all  forms  of  belief  and  worship,  and  readily  received  them  into 
fellowship ;  but  Christianity  refused  to  be  so  received. 


272  THE   FIVE    GOOD   EMPERORS. 

Persecution.  —  An  outcry  \\a^  therefore  raised  against  this 
unpopular  sect,  and  the  mild  and  just  Emperor  had  no  choice 
but  to  carry  out  the  laws  against  those  who  refused  to  worship 
the  national  gods ;  a  religion  which  interfered  with  their  duties  as 
citizens  could  not  be  tolerated.  The  hatred  against  the  Christians 
as  an  impious  and  unpatriotic  class  was  intensified  by  the  quarrels 
and  dissensions  among  themselves,  and  by  the  discreditable  shape 
in  which  the  religion  presented  itself  to  observers.  The  Chris- 
tianity which  Marcus  Aurelius  knew  was  not  a  religion  of  peace 
and  love,  a  sublime  and  intelligent  theory  of  life  and  the  unseen 
world  ;  the  Christian  church  was  full  of  bickerings  and  jealousies, 
and  its  religion  presented  itself  to  him  as  a  system  of  absurd  and 
metaphysical  speculations.  It  was  with  no  misgivings,  therefore, 
that  he  ordered  the  laws  to  be  enforced,  and  made  himself  the 
agent  of  an  active  persecution. 

The  Martyrs.  —  The  most  distinguished  victim  of  this  persecu- 
tion was  Justin,  known  as  the  Martyr,  one  of  the  earliest  of  the 

extant  writers  of  the  church.  Probably  in  the  same 
A,D.  166.    year   was   the   well-known    persecution    at    Smyrna,    in 

which  perished  Polycarp,  the  head  of  the  church  in 
that  city.  He  was  an  aged  man,  who,  as  tradition  asserted,  had 
conversed  with  the  apostle  John  ;  and  when,  as  was  regularly  done, 
the  opportunity  was  given  him  to  recant  by  cursing  Jesus,  he 
answered  :  "  Eighty  and  six  years  have  I  seized  him,  and  he  never 
did  me  harm  ;  and  how  can  I  now  blaspheme  my  King  who  has 

saved  me?"  He  was  condemned  to  death,  and  burned 
A.D,  177.    at  the  stake.     Some  years  later,  a  violent  persecution 

broke  out  at  Lyons,  occasioned  by  the  dissensions  among 
the  Christians  themselves.  The  most  conspicuous  martyr  in  this 
persecution  was  a  serving-maid  named  Blandina.  When  asked  to 
deny  her  faith,  she  answered  :  "  I  am  a  Christian ;  there  is  no 
evil  among  us."  She  was  put  to  death  in  the  arena,  with  cruel 
tortures,  after  witnessing  the  sufferings  of  many  of  her  fellow- 
worshippers. 

The  German  Inroads.  —  These  persecutions  appear   to   have 


THE  iMARCOMANIC    WAR.  273 

been  excited  by  a  sudden  outburst  of  popular  fury  at  the  calami- 
ties of  this  fatal  year,  i66.  The  year  of  the  pestilence  was  marked 
also  by  the  beginning  of  the  Marcomanic  War,  the  beginning,  as 
we  have  said,  of  a  long  series  of  similar  events  which  continued 
for  centuries  from  this  time.  From  this  date  the  Empire  was 
never  free  from  peril  from  this  source.  Julius,  and  afterwards 
Augustus,  had  invaded  Germany  and  attempted  its  conquest. 
Tiberius  had  withdrawn  from  the  enterprise  (p.  245),  and  since 
his  time  there  had  been  almost  a  condition  of  equilibrium  upon 
the  frontier,  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube  separating  the  Empire  from 
the  barbarians.  Domitian  had  even  advanced  the  frontier  at  the 
angle  between  these  rivers  (p.  260),  and  Trajan  had  conquered 
the  Dacians,  north  of  the  Danube.  But  now  the  balance  was 
turned.  In  the  reign  of  Marcus  i\urelius  the  Germans  began  to 
be  the  aggressors,  and  the  Empire  to  be  upon  the  defensive  until 
at  last  it  fell  under  their  repeated  blows. 

The  Marcomanic  War.  —  The  Marcomani  {frontiersmen)  were 
a  powerful  nation  inhabiting  Bohemia  and  Bavaria,  probably  in 
their  origin  a  group  of  tribes  rather  than  a  single  tribe.  In  the 
early  Empire  they  had  been,  as  a  rule,  friendly  to  the  Romans,  or 
neutral  in  the  great  wars  with  the  Germans  farther  north  (p.  235). 
With  them  the  great  forward  movement  of  the  Germanic  race  now 
commenced.  In  the  year  166  Marcus  was  called  to  resist  a  band 
of  Marcomani  who  had  advanced  as  far  as  Aquileia,  upon  the 
Adriatic  Sea ;  and  the  remaining  thirteen  years  of  his  reign  were 
occupied  with  a  succession  of  border  wars,  in  which  the  Marcomani 
were  aided  by  the  Quadi  (of  Moravia)  and  other  neighboring 
tribes.  Rome  was  still  the  strongest  power,  and  Marcus  was  an 
able  commander,  who  carried  on  his  campaigns  with  success  ;  but 
he  was  still  engaged  in  these  wars  when  he  died,  probably  at 
Vindobona  (^Vienna),  a.d.  180. 

Commodus,  180-193.  —  With  Marcus  Aurelius  the  line  of 
"  Good  F^mperors  "  came  to  an  end.  Great  as  he  was,  he  had 
not  the  magnanimity  to  set  aside  his  own  son  and  adopt  a  suc- 
cessor to  the  throne  ;  nor,  considering  the  natural  tendencies  to 


274  THE   FIVE    GOOD   EMPERORS. 


MARCUS  AURELIUS  RECEIVING  THE  SUBMISSION   OF  GERMAN   CAPTIVES. 
(From  a   Bas-relief  in  the  Capitoline  Museum,   Rome.) 


COM  MOD  us.  IIS 

hereditary  succession,  is  it  likely  that  he  could  have  succeeded  if 
he  had  made  the  attempt.  It  was  the  misfortune  of  Rome  that 
he  was  not  childless,  like  his  four  predecessors ;  for  his  son  Com- 
modus  was  wholly  unfit  for  the  throne.  As  in  the  case  of  every  one 
of  the  previous  emperors  who  had  been  brought  up  in  expectation 
of  the  crown,  —  Caligula,  Nero,  Domitian,  —  his  moral  nature  was 
not  capable  of  resisting  the  temptations  of  absolute  power ;  and 
he  speedily  showed  himself  a  gross  and  cruel  tyrant.  It  was  his 
delight  to  appear  in  the  guise  of  Hercules,  and  himself  take  part 


COMMODUS    (as   Herculesj 


in  gladiatorial  games  and  other  combats  of  the  amphitheatre,  — 
carefully  protected,  however,  against  danger,  as  when  he  sat  safely 
in  a  gallery  and  amused  himself  by  shooting  the  wild  beasts  in  the 
arena.  He  could  be  brutal  and  severe,  but  had  neither  firmness 
nor  vigor.  Under  his  heedless  administration  mihtary  discipline 
was  relaxed,  and  the  army  was  demoralized  by  a  spirit  of  insubor- 
dination and  lawlessness.  He  was  at  last,  a.d.  193,  murdered  by 
a  conspiracy  in  his  own  household,  and  Pertinax,  an  able  and 
experienced  soldier,  proclaimed  Emperor, 


PERIOD   VII.  — THE    CENTURY   OF    TRANSITION. 

CHAPTER    XXII. 

THE   SEVERI. 
I.   The  Dynasty. 

Pertinax  and  Didius  Julianus.  —  It  would  have  seemed  that 
Pertinax,  the  ablest  and  most  experienced  officer  in  the  army,  was 
the  man  pointed  out  by  circumstances  to  hold  the  reins  of  govern- 
ment with  a  firm  hand  at  this  crisis.  But  the  praetorians  were  too 
far  demoralized  by  the  license  of  the  last  reign  to  submit  to  the 
vigorous  discipline  of  the  new  Emperor.  He  was  murdered  by 
them  after  a  reign  of  three  months,  and  his  murderers  then  had 
the  effrontery  to  offer  the  throne  to  the  highest  bidder.  Two 
senators  were  wiUing  to  humiliate  themselves  and  their  office  by 
competing  for  the  empty  dignity,  which  was  at  last  given  to 
Didius  Julianus  for  a  gratuity  of  twenty-five  thousand  sesknes 
($1250)  to  each  soldier.  He  promised  at  the  same  time  that  he 
would  restore  the  good  old  times  of  license  under  Commodus. 
It  is  a  satisfaction  to  know  that  both  parties  to  this  infamous  bar- 
gain were  deceived,  as  the  new  Emperor  had  not  the  means  to 
l)ay  the  donation  in  full. 

Septimius  Severus,  A.D.  193-211. — The  news  of  the  murder 
of  Pertinax  and  of  the  sale  of  the  imperial  dignity  to  Didius 
Julianus  excited  indignation  in  all  parts  of  the  Empire;  and  the 
three  armies  of  Syria,  Britain,  and  Pannonia  proclaimed  each  its 
own  general  as  Emperor.  Nearest  and  promptest  of  the  three  was 
Septimius  Severus,  commander  of  the  legions  upon  the  Danube. 
He  declared  himself  the  avenger  of  Pertinax,  and  was  recognized 


SEPTIMTUS  SEVER  US.  277 

as    Emperor   by   the    Senate,   which   immediately   con- 
demned the  unfortunate  Juhanus  to  death.      The  next    a.D.  194. 
year  the  Syrian  pretender,   Pescennius    Niger,  lost   his 
empire  and  life ;  and  three  years  later  the  overthrow  of    A.D.  197. 
Clodius  Albinus  left  Severus  in  sole  possession  of  the 
throne. 

Character  of  Severus.  —  The  situation  of  Septimius  Severus 
was  in  many  respects  similar  to  that  of  Vespasian  in  69  (p.  232). 
Like  him,  he  was  a  brave  and  capable  soldier,  who  succeeded  to 
the  throne  after  an  interval  of  disturbance  and  civil  war ;  hke  him, 
the  avenger  of  a  good  and  capable  prince,  who  had  been  the 
victim  of  the  praetorian  guards ;  and  as 
Pertinax  had  followed  the  tyrant  Com- 
modus,  so  Galba  had  followed  the  tyrant 
N  ero.  Like  Vespasian,  too,  Severus  founded 
a  dynasty;  and  the  family  of  the  Severi 
occupied  the  throne,  with  the  inten^al  of 
one  year,  for  a  period  of  forty-one  years. 
But  Severus  was  a  man  of  lower  type  than 
Vespasian.  He  was  cruel  and  without  good  septimius  severus. 
faith  or  magnanimity.  His  character  is  (From  a  Coin  in  the  Berlin 
reflected  in  his  features,  the  vulgarity  of  Museum.) 

which  presents  a  strong  contrast  to  the  elegance  of  Augustus, 
the  manliness  of  Trajan,  or  the  serenity  of  Antoninus  Pius.  His 
sternness  and  vigor  were,  nevertheless,  qualities  needed  by  the 
Empire  at  this  juncture ;  and  he  may  fairly  rank  among  the  able 
and  efficient  rulers  of  Rome.  The  last  years  of  his  reign  he  spent 
in  Britain,  where  he  died,  at  Eboracum  {Yofk),  a.d.  211. 

Caracalla,  A.D.  211-217. —  He  was  succeeded  by  his  two  sons, 
Antoninus,  better  known  by  his  nickname  of  Caracalla,  and  Geta. 
But  the  very  next  year  Caracalla  murdered  his  brother,  and  reigned 
alone  until  he  was  himself  murdered,  five  years  later,  by  Macrinus, 
the  commander  of  his  guards,  while  engaged  in  a  campaign  in  the 
East.  Caracalla  was,  like  his  father,  an  able  soldier,  but  even 
more  cruel  and  vindictive.     He  is  not  counted  among  the  worst 


278 


THE   SEVER  I. 


tyrants,  with  Caligula,  Nero,  Domitian,  and  Commodus ;  but  his 
place  is  not  much  above  them. 


CARACALLA. 


Elagabalus,  A.D.  218-222.  — The  usurped  reign  of  Macrinus 
was  of  short  duration.  The  late  Emperor  had  left  two  young 
cousins,  sons  of  two  sisters,  Julia  Soemias  and  Julia  Mammaea.  The 
son  of  Soemias  was  a  priest  in  the  temple  of  the  sun-god,  Elaga- 
balus, at  Emesa  in  Syria.  His  mother,  giving  him  the  name  Anto- 
ninus, declared  him  the  son  of  Caracalla ;  and  soon  he  was  at  the 
head  of  an  army,  attracted  by  the  popularity  of  his  name  and 
family  among  the  soldiers.  Macrinus  was  defeated  in  battle,  and 
soon  afterwards  killed  ;  and  the  young  Antoninus  was  recognized  as 
Emperor.  The  name  Antoninus,  however,  associated  with  the  vir- 
tuous Pius  and  Marcus,  has  escaped  the  discredit  of  being  attached 
to  Caracalla  and  his  unworthy  cousin.  The  new  Emperor  is  always 
known  by  the  name  of  the  god,  Elagabalus,  whose  priest  he  was. 
Elagabalus  was  the  vilest  of  the  Roman  emperors,  with  all  the 
vices  of  his  worst  predecessors,  and  with  no  sparks  of  manliness 
or  sense  of  the  responsibilities  of  his  office,  such  as  even  they 
sometimes  displayed.     The  corrupt  priest  of  a  corrupt  religion, 


ALEXANDER    SEVER  US.  279 

his  life  was  given  up  to  the  grossest  sensual  enjoyments  ;  and 
after  a  shameful  reign  of  four  years,  he  was  slain,  together  with  his 
mother,  in  a  mutiny  of  the  guards. 

Alexander  Severus,  A.D.  222-235.  —  He  was  succeeded  by  his 
cousin,  Alexander  Severus,  the  last  of  his  family,  a  prince  whose  reign 
of  thirteen  years, — a  long  one  for  this  period,  —  brought  back  the 
good  times  of  the  Antonines.  His  mother,  Mamnicca,  favorably 
contrasted  to  her  weak  sister  Soemias  by  strength  of  character  and 
worthy  ambition,  had  trained  him  carefully,  and  prepared  him 
well  for  the  government  of  the  world.  But  his  vigorous  reforms 
brought  upon  him  the  same  fate  that  had  befallen  Pertinax.  First, 
the  able  agent  of  his  reforms,  the  praetorian  praefect,  the  eminent 
jurist,  Ulpian,  was  murdered  in  his  presence  by  a  body 
of  mutinous  soldiers.  X  few  years  later  the  Emperor  a.D,  235, 
himself  fell  victim  to  a  mutiny  while  on  a  campaign 
in  Germany ;  and  a  gigantic  soldier  of  Gothic  descent,  named 
Maximin,  was  proclaimed  Emperor. 

n.   The  Government. 

The  Age  of  the  Jurists. — The  period  of  the  Severi  forms  an 
important  epoch  in  Roman  history,  marking  as  it  does  the  close 
of  the  early  Empire,  and  preparing  the  way  for  the  reorganization 
of  the  Empire  by  Diocletian  and  Constantine  a  century  later. 
The  decay  of  society  was  now  most  marked.  All  independent  art 
and  hterature  ended  with  the  x\ntonines.  The  age  of  the  Severi 
was,  to  be  sure,  that  of  the  jurists.  Papinian,  Paullus,  and  — 
greatest  of  all  —  Ulpian  flourished  at  this  time,  and  completed 
that  great  work  of  scientific  jurisprudence,  which  is  the  most  illus- 
trious monument  of  the  Roman  genius.  But  these  great  jurists 
only  completed  the  work  of  many  generations,  and  with  them  the 
Roman  intellect  seems  to  suffer  a  sudden  echpse.  The  age  that 
followed  the  Severi  was  an  age  of  barbarism. 

Buildings.  —  The  second  century  had  been  an  age  of  magnifi- 
cent building,  and  its  architectural  activity  was  continued  by  the 


280  THE   SEVER  I. 

princes  of  the  house  of  Severus.  Trajan  had  carried  the  system 
of  public  squares  or  forums  (p.  238)  to  its  northernmost  extension, 
where  he  was  obliged  to  level  the  hill  to  the  depth  of  one  hundred 
and  seventeen  feet  in  order  to  make  room  for  his  forum  and  the 
column  which  still  marks  the  height  of  the  hill  which  was  removed. 
A  similar  column  had  been  built  still  further  to  the  north  by  Marcus 
Aurelius ;  and  the  bronze  equestrian  statue  of  this  emperor  upon 
the  Capitoline  Mount,  one  of  the  finest  works  of  its  class,  is  still 
one  of  the  most  striking  monuments  of  modern  Rome.  The 
triumphal  arch  of  Septimius  Severus  is  familiar  to  all  travellers, 
and  the  gigantic  public  baths  erected  by  Caracalla  still  preserve 
his  memory.  But  from  this  time  building  activity,  as  every  other 
work  of  a  high  civilization,  ceased,  on  any  large  scale,  until  revived 
by  Diocletian  and  Constantine. 
Ij^  Military  Rule.  —  The  leading  characteristic  of  this  period  is 
that  it  marks  the  end  of  the  dyarchy  (p.  231)  or  system  of  gov- 
ernment by  which  power  was  divided  between  the  Senate  and  the 
Emperor.  The  popular  assemblies  and  the  magistrates  had  long 
ceased  to  have  any  real  power ;  and  most  of  them  had  disappeared, 
even  in  name.  The  Senate  had  still  continued  to  be  in  theory 
the  seat  of  national  authority,  and  even  under  the  most  despotic 
rulers  it  had  been  an  essential  part  of  the  machinery  of  govern- 
ment. But  this  system  was  now  outgrown,  and  Severus  gave  to  it 
a  rude  blow.  Owing  his  authority  to  his  own  right  arm  and  to  the 
weapons  of  his  soldiers,  he  disdained  to  regard  the  Senate  as  its 
source.  The  century  which  followed  witnessed  several  efforts  on 
the  part  of  the  Senate  to  regain  its  lost  authority,  and  was  in  this 
respect  a  period  of  transition  from  the  republican  empire  of  the 
first  two  centuries  to  the  genuine  monarchy  of  the  fourth  ;  but  the 
transition  began  with  the  accession  of  Septimius  Severus,  who 
may  fairly  be  regarded  as  the  founder  of  the  military  monarchy. 
He  put  an  end,  however,  to  the  insolence  of  the  turbulent  prae- 
torians, dissolving  this  corps,  and  forming  a  new  body-guard  com- 
posed of  legionary  soldiers. 
^Assimilation  of  Italy  and  the  Provinces.  —  In  a  second  ponit 


EDICT   OF  CARACALLA.  281 

of  view  this  period  marks  an  important  transition  in  the  history  of 
the  Empire.  Until  now  it  had  consisted  of  two  sharply  contrasted 
portions  —  Italy,  the  ruhng  power,  and  the  Provinces,  which  were 
subject.  But  this  sharp  line  of  division  had  long  ceased  to  have 
any  meaning,  and  it  was  now  time  it  should  be  done  away  with. 
The  municipal  system  had  been  extended  to  the  provinces,  which 
were  divided  into  municipalities  after  the  Roman  plan ;  and  many 
of  these  municipalities  had  received  a  complete  or  qualified 
Roman  citizenship.  Roman  citizens  had  taken  up  their  residence 
in  the  provinces,  and  the  population  was  now  thoroughly  inter- 
mixed and  pretty  completely  assimilated.  Even  Roman  emperors, 
like  Trajan  and  Septimius  Severus,  were  natives  of  the  provinces. 
The  abolition  of  the  praetorian  cohorts  was  another  step  in  this 
assimilation ;  for  the  rule  that  the  legions  could  not  legally  be 
stationed  in  Italy  was  the  excuse  for  the  organization  of  this  body- 
guard. 

Edict  of  Caracalla,  A.D.  212. — The  most  important  step  in 
this  direction,  however,  was  taken  by  Caracalla,  who  in  the  year 
212  issued  an  edict  granting  citizenship  to  all  the  inhabitants  of 
the  provinces.  This  famous  act  was  not  dictated  by  any  en- 
lightened statesmanship  ;  its  object  was  to  extend  the  operation 
of  certain  taxes,  which  fell  only  upon  Roman  citizens,  and  thus 
to  fill  the  coffers  of  the  Emperor.  It  was,  however,  directly  in 
the  line  of  his  father's  policy,  and  it  had  beneficent  and  important 
results.  The  administrative  system  of  the  provinces  was  by 
degrees  extended  to  Italy,  and  the  revenue  system  of  all  parts 
of  the  Empire  made  uniform.  The  centralization  of  power  in 
the  hands  of  the  Emperor,  and  the  unity  of  the  Empire  under  a 
single  administrative  and  financial  system,  were  the  fruits  of  the 
policy  of  Septimius  Severus. 

Praetorian  Prsefect.  —  In  abolishing  the  praetorian  cohorts 
Severus  did  not,  however,  abolish  the  office  of  Praetorian  Prae- 
fect.  This  officer,  being  now  reheved  of  his  especial  military 
functions,  became  the  chief  minister  of  the  Emperor,  representing 
him  in  public  business  and  clothed  with  authority  hardly  second 


282  THE   SEVER/. 

to  his.  As  the  Emperor  was  the  fountain  of  justice  to  whom  all 
appeals  in  judicial  j^roceedings  were  carried,  it  was  natural  that  he 
should  need  an  experienced  jurist  by  his  side,  from  whose  trained 
intelligence  should  emanate  the  judgments  which  were  nominally 
rendered  by  the  Emperor.  The  office  of  Praetorian  Prsefect  was 
therefore  regularly  given  to  some  distinguished  jurist ;  so  that, 
from  having  originally  been  a  purely  military  office,  its  duties  were 
now  principally  civil,  and  at  last  exclusively  so.  It  was  as  the 
incumbent  of  this  office  that  Ulpian  carried  out  his  reforms  and 
lost  his  life. 

Finances.  —  The  financial  embarrassment  which  was  the  most 
menacing  sign  of  decay  in  the  preceding  century  now  reached  its 
height.  To  other  causes  of  economic  disturbances  there  was  now 
added  the  depreciation  of  the  currency,  which  had  been  begun  by 
Nero  and  was  pushed  recklessly  by  Caracalla  and  Elagabalus. 
But  Elagabalus,  indifferent  as  he  was  to  affairs  of  state,  while  pay- 
ing his  debts  in  debased  currency  was  careful  to  have  the  taxes 
paid  in  good  money. 

III.    The  Religion. 

Christianity.  —  The  period  of  the  Severi  is  an  important  epoch 
in  religious  history  also.  Until  now  the  Christian  church  had 
been  an  obscure  association  of  believers,  with  creed  and  organiza- 
tion in  process  of  formation.  The  persecutions  of  Marcus  Aurelius 
appear  to  have  aroused  the  consciousness  of  the  Christians,  and  to 
have  at  the  same  time  attracted  to  them  a  more  general  attention. 
From  this  time  their  progress  was  rapid,  and  they  became  more 
and  more  active  and  conspicuous.  The  church  had  been  a 
brotherhood  of  co-religionists,  whose  aims  were  essentially  moral 
and  social.  Their  doctrines  began  now  to  assume  a  more  definite 
and  dogmatic  form,  and  unity  of  belief  to  be  considered  more 
essential.  This  was  the  age  of  Irenseus  of  Lyons,  Clement  and 
Origen  of  Alexandria,  and  Tertullian  of  Africa,  —  names  of  the 
first  importance  in  the  history  of  doctrine.  The  complete  organi- 
zation of  the  church,  too,  was  the  work  of  this  century  and  chiefly 


SYNCRETISM.  283 

of  this  period ;  and  it  was  through  these  two  instrumentaUties  — 
unity  of  belief  and  unity  of  discipHne  and  administration  —  that 
it  achieved  its  great  triumphs  in  the  following  century.  The 
organization  of  the  church  was  based  upon  that  of  the  state,  and 
every  city  (p.  i6o)  was  made  the  seat  of  a  bishop. 

The  Religion  of  the  Severi.  —  The  spirit  of  the  age  and  of  the 
dynasty  were  favorable  to  the  progress  of  Christianity.  The  Sev- 
eri were  not,  like  the  Antonines,  earnest  believers  in  the  pagan 
system,  and  austere  upholders  of  its  faith.  Even  Elagabalus,  the 
fanatic  devotee  of  his  religion,  had  not  the  moral  earnestness  to 
be  a  persecutor.  And  the  women,  who  controlled  the  sentiments 
of  this  dynasty  in  a  remarkable  degree,  —  the  sisters  Soemias  and 
Mammaea,  their  mother  Julia  Maesa,  and  her  sister  Julia  Domna, 
the  wife  of  Septimius  Severus,  —  were  fully  in  sympathy  with  that 
religious  philosophy,  the  controlling  one  at  this  age,  known  as 
Syncretism.^ 

Syncretism.  —  Syncretism  is  that  development  of  pagan  religion 
which  recognizes  the  universality  and  identity  of  the  religious  sen- 
timent, but  has  not  yet  advanced  to  the  conception  of  a  genuine 
unity  of  the  divine  nature^  or  monotheism.  It  is  polytheistic,  but  a 
form  of  polytheism  which  embraces  all  countries  and  nations,  seeing 
in  their  different  systems  of  gods  only  varying  names  for  the  same 
beings.  It  was  an  act  of  Syncretism  when  the  Romans  identified 
their  Minerva  with  the  Greek  Athena,  and  their  Mercury  with  the 
German  Woden.  This  sentiment  controlled  the  popular  religion 
of  the  early  Empire,  and  in  the  time  of  the  Severi  it  became 
formulated  into  a  religious  system,  tolerant  and  humane,  and 
moral  in  its  tone,  even  if  somewhat  vague  and  lacking  consistency 
in  the  form  it  took.  Along  with  this  reconstruction  of  the  popu- 
lar religion  the  old  Greek  philosophies  were  eagerly  studied,  revised 
in  the  light  of  recent  thought,  and  thus  invested  with  a  new  life. 
The  Neo-platonism,  or  revised  Platonic  philosophy,  thus  con- 
structed, was  until  the  extinction  of  paganism  the  most  dangerous 
rival  of  Christianity. 

1  For  the  religious  thought  of  this  period,  read  The  Mind  of  Paganism, 
by  J.  H.  Allen,  Christian  History,  Vol.  I. 


284  THE   SEVER  I. 

Alexander  Severus.  —  Syncretism  reached  its  completest  tri- 
umph in  the  rcigii  of  Alexander  Severus,  under  the  influence  of 
his  wise  and  tolerant  mother,  Julia  Mammaea.  Christianity  was 
no  doubt  fully  as  hostile  to  the  syncretic  principle  as  to  the  older 
forms  of  paganism  :  but  the  Severi  did  not  care  to  push  these 
sectaries  into  opposition,  but  rather  tried  to  win  them  by  a  toler- 
ant policy ;  while  the  Christians  of  this  age  were  too  busily  en- 
gaged in  practical  work  to  seek  wilfully  the  crown  of  martyrdom. 
It  is  related  of  Alexander  Severus  that  he  had  a  chapel  in  his 
palace  containing  images  of  the  saints  of  all  religions,  among 
them  Christ,  Abraham,  Orpheus,  and  Apollonius  of  Tyana.  But 
Syncretism  had  but  a  short  career.  It  disappeared  as  an  organic 
force  in  the  disorderly  times  that  followed,  —  vitality,  earnestness 
of  purpose,  strength  and  coherence  of  organization  were  with 
Christianity. 

IV.    Foreign  Relations. 

The  Northern  Frontier.  —  This  period  is  marked  also  by  a 
distinct  and  important  stage  in  the  onward  movement  of  the  Ger- 
manic tribes.  The  operations  of  the  Marcomanic  war  had  occu- 
pied nearly  the  middle  point  upon  the  German  frontier ;  that  war 
was  now  past,  and  from  this  time  we  hear  little  more  of  the  Mar- 
comani.^  Further  to  the  east  the  Goths  had  already  moved  in  a 
southeasterly  direction  from  their  old  homes  upon  the  Baltic,  and 
were  now  established  on  the  northern  shore  of  the  Black  Sea.  Here 
in  the  following  century  they  were  troublesome  neighbors  to  the 
Roman  province  of  Dacia,  which  at  last  had  to  be  given  up  to  them. 
At  the  western  extremity  of  the  frontier,  upon  the  Rhine,  we  meet 
with  a  new  and  menacing  condition  of  things  in  the  time  of  the 
Severi. 

The  German  Political  System.  —  The  Germans  in  earlier  tmies, 
as  they  are  described  by  Caesar  and  Tacitus,  consisted  of  a  num- 

1  This  nation  gradually  disappears  from  history.  The  western  portion  of 
it  became  the  Bavarians,  while  the  territories  to  the  east  were  gradually  occu- 
pied by  Slavic  tribes. 


THE    GERMAN  INROADS.  285 

ber  of  independent  tribes,  wlio  were  with  difficulty  brought  to 
unite  for  special  ends,  and  easily  fell  apart  when  the  occasion  had 
passed.    But  they  had  now  begun  to  be  conscious  of  their  strength, 
and  had  learned  that  their  strength  was  wasted  by  their  disunion. 
We  find  them  gathering  together  in  loose  confederacies,  by  which 
their  resources  were  made  more  effective,  while  the  independence 
and  individuality  of  the  several  tribes  were  preserved.     The  Mar- 
comani  appear  to  have  been  the  earliest  confederacy  of  this  type. 
Next   to    them  came    the  Alamanni,  —  the  All-men,  —  a  body 
of  tribes  which  gathered  along  Domitian's  line  of  fortified  posts 
(p.  260),  extending  from  the  middle  Rhine  to  the  Danube,  and 
began  to  push  their  way  across .  the  bounds   into    the 
Empire.     Here  they  were  met  and  defeated  by  Cara-     a.D.  213. 
calla ;  but  before  the  end  of  the  century  they  succeeded 
in  their  object,  and  took  possession  of  the  country  along 
the  upper  Rhine.     A  few  years  later  than  the  Alamanni,     a.D.  242. 
a  similar  association  of  tribes,  known  as  the  Franks,^  are 
met  upon  the  lower  Rhine,  principally  in  Belgium  and  Holland. 
Thus  nearly  the  entire  course  of  the  Rhine  was  occupied  by  these 
new  organizations. 

The  Western  Germans.  — The  migrations  of  these  western  Ger- 
mans are  very  different  in  character  from  those  of  the  eastern 
nations,  —  the  Goths,  Vandals,  and  Lombards.  These,  as  we  shall 
see,  swept  rapidly  and  destructively  over  wide  spaces  of  territory, 
taking  military  possession  of  all  the  countries  of  southern  Europe. 
The  Franks  and  Alamannians,  on  the  other  hand,  consisted  of 
tribes  which  had  long  been  under  the  influences  of  Roman  civih- 
zation,  had  learned  to  cultivate  the  soil,  and  had  adopted  other 
customs  of  civilized  life.^  They  formed  compact  and  permanent 
settlements,  and  only  spread  over  as  much  territory  as  they  could 
use.  Forcing  their  way  into  the  territories  of  the  Empire,  and 
occupying  vacant  lands  which  had  become  deserted  and  desolate 
in  the  disorders  of  these  times,  many  of  these  in  the  course  of 

1  The  name  of  the  Franks  is  barely  mentioned  a  few  years  earlier. 
'^  This  important  distinction  was  first  pointed  out  by  Dahn. 


286 


THE   SEVER  I. 


time  came  to  an  understanding  with  the  Romans,  recognized  the 
superior  authority  of  the  Empire,  and  were  allowed  to  occupy 
their  lands  on  condition  of  military  service,  forming  thus  an  im- 
portant part  of  the  military  force  of  the  Empire.  Thus  we  shall 
have  little  more  to  do  with  either  Franks  or  Alamannians  during 
the  period  covered  by  this  volume. 

Revolution  in  the  Orient.  —  During  the  reign  of  Alexander 
Severus  a  revolution  took  place  in  the  far  East,  —  namely,  the 
establishment  of  a  new  and  powerful  empire  in  Persia  —  which 
was  of  the  greatest  importance  in  the  world's  history,  and  which 
exerted  a  great  and  direct  influence  upon  the  affairs  of  the  Roman 
Empire  ;  but,  as  it  had  no  immediate  influence  upon  these  affairs 
until  some  years  later,  its  consideration  may  be  postponed  (see 
Chap.  XXIV.). 


PR/ETORIANS. 


THE   BARRACK  EMPERORS.  2^1 


CHAPTER    XXIir. 

THE    THIRD    CENTURY. 

The  Empire  in  the  Third  Century.  —  It  would  be  wearisome 
and  useless  to  occupy  our  attention  in  detail  with  the  reigns  of  the 
successive  emperors  who  sat  upon  the  imperial  throne  between 
the  murder  of  Alexander  Severus  (a.d.  235)  and  the  accession  of 
Diocletian  (a.d.  284).  Many  of  these  emperors  were  able  and 
worthy,  but  the  times  were  not  favorable  to  their  virtues.  Death 
by  battle,  mutiny  or  assassination  carried  them  off  before  they  had 
an  opportunity  to  display  their  qualities.  The  third  century,  from 
Septimius  Severus  to  Diocletian,  was  occupied  by  the  reigns  of 
twenty-eight  emperors  (several  of  them  in  pairs),  only  five  of 
whom  (perhaps  only  four)  died  a  natural  death.  It  will  be  best 
therefore  to  present  in  tabulated  form  the  names  of  these  em- 
perors, with  the  manner  of  their  deaths,  and  any  conspicuous 
events  of  their  reigns.^ 

Emperors  of  the  Third  Century. 

A.D. 

200.    Septimius  Severus  :  died  211. 

211.    Caracalla  and   Geta :    Geta  murdered   by  Caracalla,    212; 
Caracalla  murdered  by  a  conspiracy,  x'\pril,  217. 

217.  Macrinus  :  defeated  and  killed,  June,  218. 

218.  Elagabalus  :  killed  by  a  mutiny,  March,  222. 

222.    Alexander  Severus  :  killed  by  a  mutiny,  February,  235. 

235.    Maximin  :  killed  himself,  May,  238. 

238.    Gordian  I.  and  II. :  killed  in  the  same  year. 

1  As  these  emperors  were  little  more  than  military  commanders,  spending 
their  lives  in  the  camp,  they  are  happily  designated  by  Hodgkin  the  "  Barrack 
Emperors." 


288  THE    THIRD    CENTURY. 

A.D. 

2T^%.    Maximus  and  Pupienus  Balbiniis,  declared  emperors  by  the 

Senate  :  murdered  l)y  the  soldiers  in  the  same  year. 
238.    Gordian  III.  :  murdered  244. 
244.    Philip  the  Arabian  :  killed,  October,  249. 
249.    Decius  :   250,  persecution  of  the  Christians  ' ;  killed  in  battle 

against  the  Goths,  November,  251. 
251.    Gallus  and  Hostilian  :   Hostilian  died  252,  Gallus  murdered 

by  his  soldiers,  February,  254. 
253.    .^imilian  :  murdered  by  his  soldiers,  May,  254. 
253.    Valerian  :  captured  by  the  Persians,  autumn,  260,  and  died 

in  captivity. 
260.    Gallienus  :  dissolution  of  the  Empire  —  the  "  Thirty  Tyrants." 

Murdered,  March,  268. 

The  Illyrl\n  Emperors.^ 

268.    Claudius  Gothicus  :  victory  over  the  Goths  at  Naissus,  269  : 

died  of  pestilence,  March,  270. 
270.    Aurelian:  capture  of  Palmyra,  273^;  Dacia  given  up  to  the 

Goths  ;  killed  by  a  conspiracy,  March,  275. 

275.  Tacitus* :  a  Roman  senator,  killed  by  a  mutiny,  April,  276. 

276.  Florian* :  his  brother,  killed  by  his  soldiers,  July,  276. 
276.    Probus  :  killed  by  a  mutiny,  autumn,  282. 

282.  Carus  :  killed  by  a  conspiracy,  December,  283. 

283.  Carinus  and  Numerian  ;.  his  sons  :   Numerian  died,  Septem- 

ber, 284;  Carinus  murdered,  285. 

284.  Diocletian. 

1  Cardinal  Newman's  Callista  portrays  the  Christian  life  and  thought  of 
the  age  with  remarkable  truthfulness  and  beauty,  but  wholly  fails  to  appreciate 
the  contemporary  pagan  thought.  Read  also  Mrs.  John  Hunt's  Wa^'ds  of 
Plotimis. 

-  Read  P>eeman"s  article  "The  lUyrian  Emperors  and  their  Lands,"  in  the 
third  series  of  his  Historical  Essays. 

^  William  Ware's  Zenobia  and  Aiirclian. 

^  Tacitus  and  Florian  were  not  natives  of  lUvricum. 


EMPIRE    OF   rilE   SASSANID^.  289 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

AFFAIRS   IN   THE   EAST. 

Revolution  in  the  East.  —  In  the  early  part  of  this 
century    the    Parthian    empire,    which    had    shared    the    A.D.  226, 
world  with   the   Roman  for  nearly  four  hundred  years, 
was  suddenly  overturned ;    and  the  new  Persian  empire  took  its 
place.     The  effete  dynasty  of  the  Arsacidae  gave  way  to  that  of 
the  vigorous  and  ambitious  Sassanidae. 

The  Persian  Empire.  —  In  this  event  we  see  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  overthrow  of  the  Median  empire  by  Cyrus  B.C.  568. 
the  Persian.  Now  as  then  the  Persians,  a  vigorous  people 
of  the  Aryan  race,  were  dependent  members  of  a  great  empire ; 
and  now  the  Parthian  empire  had  lost  strength  and  enterprise,  as 
had  been  the  case  with  the  Median  under  Astyages.  Artaxerxes, 
or  Ardashir,  the  Persian  prince  who  placed  his  nation  for  a  second 
time  upon  the  summit  of  power,  was  a  worthy  successor  of  Cyrus 
the  Great ;  and  now  as  then,  but  in  a  much  higher  degree,  religious 
zeal  was  added  to  dynastic  ambition ;  for  Artaxerxes,  like  Cyrus, 
and  still  more  Hke  Darius,  was  the  champion  of  a  national  religion 
of  marked  individuality  and  aggressive  power, 

Mazdeism,  the  Religion  of  Zoroaster. — The  religion  of  Zoroas- 
ter, Mazdeis/n,  is,  in  its  pure  form,  the  recognition  of  a  dualism  in 
the  divine  government  of  the  world,  —  a  good  and  evil  spirit 
constantly  warring  against  each  other,  an  equilibrium  of  good  and 
evil  forces  in  the  world  as  it  is,  but  (in  the  best  form  of  the  rehgion), 
with  a  confident  expectation  of  the  final  triumph  of  the  good. 
In  its  best  estate  this  religion  had  a  positively  moral  character, 
and  was  wholly  devoid  of  idolatrous  or  impure  practices.  The 
belief  in  a  good  god,  Ormuzd,  who  will  finally  triumph  over  his 
antagonist,  Ahriman,  is  hardly  to  be  distinguished  from  monotheism  ; 


290 


AFFAIRS  IN   THE  EAST. 


and  if  this  god  was  symbolized  by  the  fire,  so  that  his  votaries 
came  to  be  known  as  fire-worshippers,  yet  this  was  in  reahty  only 
a  symbol,  not  an  object  of  worsliip. 

Religion  of  the  Sassanidae. — The  form  of  Mazdeism  which 
now,  after  many  centuries  of  eclipse,  mounted  the  throne  of  Persia, 
was  not  the  pure  religion  of  Zoroaster.  It  was,  nevertheless,  a 
new  and  inspiring  force,  arming  the  soldiers  of  the  Sassanidae  with 
religious  fervor  and  the  z^l  of  propagandism.  The  world  had 
never  before  known  a  great  empire  and  conquering  armies  whose 


■^'^— r '  -e^'-'j 


TRIUMPH    OF   SAPOR. 


inspiration  was  so  controllingly  religious.  This  is  what  principally 
makes  it  an  epoch  in  the  world's  history.  The  conquering  zeal 
which  characterized  Islam  and  the  Crusades  was  introduced  into 
the  world  by  the  Sassanian  monarchs.  They  were  the  first  rulers 
in  history  who  persecuted  on  purely  religious  grounds.  ^ 

The  Sassanidae.  —  The  revolution  which  established  the  new 
Persian  empire  and  the  Sassanid  dynasty  took  place  in  the  year  226  ; 

1  This  statement  is  made  by  Bryce  (^Transcaiuasia  and  Ararat),  and  is,  at 
any  rate,  approximately  true.  The  religious  propagandism  of  the  early  oriental 
monarchies  was  rather  the  extension  of  a  national  worship  than  of  a  distinc- 
tively religious  faith. 


THE    THIRTY   TYRANTS.  291 

and  the  empire  now  established  continued  as  the  principal  rival 
of  Rome,  and  far  more  bitter  and  obstinate  in  its  rivalry  than  the 
Parthian  had  been,  until  overthrown  by  a  new  band  of 
religious  conquerors,  the  followers  of  Mohammed.    After    a.D.  641. 
a   short   reign  Artaxerxes  was    succeeded   by  his    son, 
Sapor,  in  whom  the  vigor,  insolence,  and  cruelty  of  his    A.D.  240. 
race  culminated.     It  was  he  who  captured  the  Emperor 
Valerian,  and  treated  him  with  cruel  indignity.^     By  his    A.D.  260. 
arrogance  Odenatus,  Prince  of  Palmyra,  was  offended, 
and  driven  to  alliance  with  Rome.  /^ 

Reign  of  Gallienus,  B.C.  260-268.  —By  the  captivity  of  Valerian  ^ 
the  Roman  throne  was  left  to  be  occupied  by  his  son,  GaUienus,  a 
prince  of  many  strong  and  amiable  traits,  but  wholly  unfitted  for 
the  stormy  times  in  which  he  lived.  The  Empire  seemed  hterally 
falling  to  pieces.  What  had  occurred  in  the  revolutionary  years 
dZ  and  193  in  two  or  three  provinces  now  took  place  in  all  direc- 
tions. Everywhere  the  governors  of  single  provinces  or  groups 
of  provinces  set  up  the  standard  of  revolt,  and  there  seemed  every 
likelihood  that  the  Empire  would  be  resolved  into  its  original  ele- 
ments. This  period  is  known,  very  inappropriately,  as  that  of  the 
"Thirty  Tyrants."  To  this  internal  dissolution  there  were  added 
formidable  dangers  upon  the  frontiers.  The  Persians  were  incited 
to  new  arrogance  by  their  victory  over  Valerian.  Upon  the  north 
the  German  tribes  were  in  a  ferment.  A  company  of 
Franks  made  its  way  through  Gaul,  plundering  and  B.C.  256. 
destroying,  and  even  passed  the  Pyrenees,  and  ravaged 
portions  of  Spain.  Some  of  them  are  said  to  have  crossed  to 
Africa.  At  about  the  same  time  the  Goths  north  of  the  Black  Sea 
possessed  themselves  of  some  swift  galleys,  and  not  only  plundered 
the  ports  of  that  sea,  but  made  their  way  into  the  ^gean. 

1  Of  the  details  really  nothing  is  known.  Mommsen  says,  "  That  Sapor 
used  him  as  a  footstool  in  mounting  his  horse,  and  finally  caused  him  fo  be 
flayed,  is  a  Christian  invention,  —  a  requital  for  the  persecution  of  the  Chris- 
tians ordered  by  Valerian."  It  is  related  that  his  skin  was  preserved  by  Sapor 
in  a  temple,  but  the  body  may  have  been  flayed  after  death. 


292  AFFAIRS   IN   THE   EAST. 

Palmyra. — Of  all  the  fragmentary  powers  called  into  existence 
by  the  disruption  of  the  Empire,  Palmyra,  the  ''City  of  Palms," 
was  the  strongest,  most  illustrious,  and  longest-lived.     This  city 
was  an  emporium   of  commerce  upon  an  oasis   of  the  Arabian 
Desert,  at  the  junction  of  two  caravan  routes,  a  community  of 
merchant  princes,  essentially  Semitic  in  nationahty,  but  very  cos- 
mopolitan in  character.     It  was  a  city  of  great  wealth  and  splen- 
did architecture.     The  father  of  Odenatus  had  raised  himself  to  a 
position  somewhat  similar  to  that  of  Lorenzo  di  Medici  in  Florence  ; 
and  Odenatus  himself,  taking  up  arms  for  Rome,  an  1 
A.D.  264.    defending  the  frontier  against  the  menacing  Sapor,  had 
been  recognized  as  colleague  and  even  as  "  Augustus  " 
by  Gallienus,  whose   hands  were  so  fully  occupied  with  wars  in 
every  part  of  the  Empire  that  he  was  glad  to  secure  the  loyalty 
of  Palmyra  by  the  concession  of  this  title.     Soon  after 
A.D.  267.    Odenatus  was  murdered,  and  his  throne  occupied  by  his 
widow,  Zenobia. 
Aurelian,  270-275.  —  Claudius,  during  his  short  reign  (268- 
270),  had  restored  some  degree  of  order;  and  his  able  and  vig- 
orous   successor,   Aurelian,  re-established    the   imperial  authority 
^^^^         throughout  the  realm,  and  brought  to  an  end  the 
^^^^^^^..      period  of  the  "Thirty   Tyrants."       He    was    a 
l^^^M^x '^\    coarse   and   uncultured  peasant  of  Illyria,    but 
^^3^!^^  .:^l    his  energy  and  native  good  sense  have  made  his 
^^^^^^^/     reign  an    epoch    in   the  history  of  the   period. 
^^^>m^^         'Phe  perils  were  great  in  every  direction.     In  the 
COIN  OF  AURELIAN.    ^^^^^  Zcuobia  had  scvcrcd    from  the   Empire  a 
great  portion   of  its  Asiatic   possessions.      In  the  West   a  rival 
empire  had  been  created,  embracing  Gaul,  Britain,  and  a  part 
of  Spain,  which,  under  a  succession  of  "  tyrants,"  had  held  the 
legitimate  Emperor  at  defiance.     At  present  this  precarious  throne 
was  .occupied   by  a  pretender  named  Tetricus.      In  the   North, 
where  the  German  tribes  had  already  pushed  across  the  frontier, 
the  emergency  was  even  more  pressing. 

Wars  in  the  North.  —  Aurelian  saw  that  the  conquests  of  Trajan 


0        1'50      6UU  lUOO 


I. 

Colosseum. 

IS- 

2. 

Arch  of  Constantine. 

16. 

3- 

Arch  of  Titus. 

17- 

4- 

Via  Sacra. 

18. 

5- 

Via  Nova. 

19. 

6. 

Vicus  Tuscus. 

20. 

7- 

Vicus  Jugarius. 

21. 

8. 

Arch  of  Septimius  Severus. 

22. 

9- 

Clivus  Capitolinus. 

23- 

lO. 

Temple  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus. 

24. 

II. 

Arch. 

25- 

12. 

Column  of  Trajan. 

26. 

13- 

Column  of  Antonine. 

27. 

14. 

Baths  of  Agrippa. 

28. 

Pantheon. 

Theatre  of  Pompey. 
Portico  of  Pompey. 
Circus  Flaminius. 
Theatre  of  IMarcellus. 
Forum  Holitorium. 
Forum  Boarium. 
Mausoleum  of  Augustus. 
Mausoleum  of  Hadrian. 
Baths  of  Constantine. 
Baths  of  Diocletian. 
Baths  of  Titus. 
Baths  of  Caracalla. 
Amphitheatrum  Castrense. 


A  UR  ELIAN.  293 

beyond  the  Danube  (p.  262)  were  a  source  of  weakness  rather 
than  strength.  He  withdrew  the  garrisons  and  most  of  the  col- 
onists to  the  south  of  the  Danube,  and  left  the  province  of  Dacia 
to   be  occupied   by  the   Goths.     A  formidable  invasion  of  the 


RUINS    OF    TEMPLE    OF    THE    SUN    BUILT    BY    AURELIAN. 

Alamannians  had  crossed  the  Alps,  and  was  laying  waste  the 
regions  about  the  Po.  Aurelian  defeated  these  barbarians,  and 
freed  Italy  from  this  scourge.  In  order  to  secure  the  capital  city 
more  completely,  he  now  proceeded  to  build  a  line  of  fortifications 


294  AFFAIRS  IN    TIIF   EAST. 

about  it.  The  old  walls  of  StT\ins  Tullius  had  been  long  outgrown, 
and  had  fallen  into  ruin.  Rome,  in  her  days  of  greatness,  needed, 
like  Sparta,  no  walls  except  the  shields  of  her  legions.  But  these 
days  had  passed,  and  the  walls  of  Aurelian  are  one  among  many 
signs  of  the  approaching  downfall  of  the  imperial  city.  Having 
thus  settled  the  affairs  of  Italy  and  the  northern  frontier,  Aurelian 
proceeded  against  his  rival  in  the  East. 
^'"  Zenobia.  —  Zenobia  is  one  of  the  heroines  of  history.  To  great 
beauty  and  unblemished  virtue  she  added  a  lofty  ambition  and, 
along  with  it,  the  power  of  ruling  her  subjects  with  combined 
mildness  and  justice.  Herself  a  monotheist,  she  practised  perfect 
toleration  ;  Christian,  Jew,  Mazdean,  and  Pagan  lived  side  by  side 
in  peace  under  her  equable  rule.  The  great  Greek  philosopher 
Longinus,  the  chief  personage  in  Grecian  literature  in  this  century, 
and  the  most  illustrious  teacher  of  the  new  Platonism  of  the  age, 
had  been  invited  to  Palmyra,  and  became  her  chief  minister. 
But  her  ambition  was  not  satisfied,  like  that  of  her  husband,  with 
a  second  place  in  the  Empire,  nor  would  even  such  a  place  have 
been  conceded  by  a  prince  like  Aurelian.  She  aspired  to  inde- 
pendence, —  to  rule  a  "  middle  kingdom  "  between  the  two  great 
rival  empires ;  and  she  had  extended  her  bounds  to  the  west  so 
as  to  include  Egypt  and  half  of  Asia  Minor.  But  a  middle  king- 
dom such  as  she  desired  is  sure,  in  an  age  of  warfare,  to  be  ground 
to  pieces  by  its  neighbors. 

Fall  of  Palmyra,  A.D.  273.  —  The  campaign  of  Aurelian 
was  rapid  and  successful.  The  armies  of  Zenobia  were  de- 
feated in  two  battles,  and  then  her  capital  city  was  besieged  and 
taken.  The  captive  queen  had  the  weakness  and  meanness  to 
throw  upon  her  ministers  the  blame  for  her  resistance ;  and  they, 
including  the  illustrious  Longinus,  were  put  to  death,  while  Zeno- 
bia was  carried  to  Rome  to  adorn  the  conqueror's  triumph.  The 
city  was  spared ;  but  an  ill-timed  revolt,  when  Aurelian  was  on  his 
way  home,  called  him  back.  This  time  he  inflicted  a  terrible 
punishment.  The  citizens  were  massacred,  the  city  was  burned, 
and  Palmyra  rapidly  fell  from  its  wealth  and  beauty.  It  is  now  the 
seat  of  lonely  and  majestic  ruins,  visited  by  occasional  travellers. 


THE  BAGAUD^,  295 

Subjugation  of  Gaul.  —  Having  overthrown  this  powerful  king- 
dom in  the  East,  Aiirehan  found  it  an  easy  task  to  reduce  his 
western  rival  (p.  292).  Tetricus  was  tired  of  the  mockery  of 
state,  and  made  only  a  feeble  resistance.  Like  Zenobia,  he  was 
led  in  his  victor's  triumphal  procession.  But  Gaul  was  in  too 
serious  a  condition  of  social  and  economic  decay  to  be  speedily 
restored  to  order.  Even  before  the  conquest  of  this  country  by 
Caesar,  its  peasantry  had  been  a  wretched  and  degraded  class  ;  they 
had  sunk  even  lower  in  condition,  as  the  demoralization  which  had 
seized  upon  the  industrial  relations  of  Italy  spread  to  the  prov- 
inces also.  The  depreciation  of  the  currency,  now  at  its  height, 
fell  —  as  it  always  does  —  with  the  greatest  severity  upon  the 
laboring  classes ;  and  during  the  rest  of  the  century  Gaul  was  a 
hot-bed  of  discontent  and  revolution.  A  few  years  later  (285), 
it  broke  out  in  the  first,  and  one  of  the  most  formidable,  of  the 
peasant  wars  which  have  at  various  epochs  laid  waste  this  country. 
The  BagaudcB  of  the  third  century  were  the  legitimate  precursors, 
and  probably  the  ancestors,  of  the  Pastoiireaiix  of  the  thirteenth, 
the  Jacquei'ie  of  the  fourteenth,  and  the  insurgent  peasantry  of 
the  French  revolution.  To  suppress  this  insurrection  was  the  first 
task  of  Diocletian,  the  greatest  emperor  of  the  third  century, 
who  succeeded  to  the  throne  in  284,  and  here  as  elsewhere 
re-established  peace  and  order. 


PERIOD    VIII.— THE    LATER    EMPIRE   (284-47C) 


CHAPTER    XXV. 


REORGANIZATION   OF  THE   EMPIRE. 


I.    Diocletian. 


Reforms  of  Diocletian.  —  In  the  century  which  we  have  just 
traversed,  the  Roman  Empire  appeared  upon  the  point  of  faUing 

to  pieces  from  defects  in  its  organiza- 
tion, decay  of  material  prosperity,  and 
the  increased  strength  and  aggressive 
spirit  of  foreign  enemies.  For  the 
economic  decay  and  the  assaults  from 
without  there  was  no  remedy,  and 
they  finally  wrought  the  destruction  of 
the  Empire.  The  constitution,  how- 
ever, was  capable  of  revision ;  and  a 
statesman  ascended  the  throne  at  the 
\ery  close  of  the  century  who  insti- 
tuted a  series  of  reforms  which,  while 
fundamentally  changing  its  character, 
gave  it  a  new  efficiency,  and  pro- 
longed its  life  for  more  than  a  hun- 
dred years.  This  was  Diocletian,  the 
last  of  the  Illyrian  emperors. 

Preparation  for  the  Reforms.  —  The  reform  was  not  carried 
through  at  one  stroke,  nor  was  it  entirely  the  work  of  Diocletian ; 
it  had  been  in  preparation  for  a  century,  and  was  brought  to 
completion  by  his  more  distinguished  successor  Constantine. 
But  Diocletian  was  the  first  who  saw  clearly  the  logical  conse- 


DIOCLETIAN 


THE  ILL  YR IAN  EMPERORS.  297 

quences  of  earlier  reforms,  and  carried  them  out  to  practical  re- 
sults. He  was  the  man  of  ideas,  Constantine  the  man  of  action, 
of  this  reform.  Septimius  Severus  had  put  an  end  to  the  dyarchy 
(p.  280),  but  had  not  definitely  established  the  monarchy;  Cara- 
calla  had  extended  citizenship  to  the  provincials  (p.  281),  but 
had  not  entirely  effaced  the  distinction  between  Italy  and  the 
provinces.  It  was  Diocletian  who  organized  the  entire  Empire 
upon  a  uniform  basis,  and  placed  it  under  the  irresponsible  rule 
of  a  monarch.  Free  government  was  now  at  an  end,  even  in 
name  and  semblance ;  but  nothing  but  centralized  despotism 
could  hold  society  together  under  its  present  difficulties. 

The  Illyrian  Emperors. — The  reign  of  Gallienus  (260-268) 
was  the  period  at  which  the  Empire  was  at  the  lowest  point  of 
weakness  and  disintegration.  The  Illyrian  peasants  who  suc- 
ceeded him  —  Claudius,  Aurehan,  Probus,  Carus,  all  rulers  of 
great  merit  —  succeeded  in  holding  the  disruptive  forces  in  check, 
and  preventing  any  further  dissolution ;  but  they  did  not  see  just 
where  the  evil  lay,  nor  were  their  reigns  long  enough  for  any 
matured  policy  of  reform.  The  starting  point  in  Diocletian's  re- 
forms was  the  observation  that  the  Empire  was  too  large  and  too 
varied  in  nationality  to  be  efficiently  administered  by  one  chief. 
In  the  parts  of  the  Empire  where  the  Emperor  could  not  be  pres- 
ent in  person,  it  was  easy  for  the  provincial  governors,  practically 
irresponsible  and  armed  with  both  military  and  civil  power,  to  set 
on  foot  rebellions  which  might  perhaps  become  successful  revolu- 
tions, placing  their  leaders  upon  the  imperial  throne.  Vespasian, 
Septimius  Severus,  and  numbers  of  others  had  been  made  em- 
perors by  pronunciamenfos  ;  why  not  Tetricus  and  his  compeers  ? 

Partnership  Emperors.^  —  One  of  the  first  acts  of  Diocletian 
therefore  was  to  associate  with  himself  as  "Augustus"  a  capable  and 
trusted  officer,  although  rude  and  harsh  in  character,  named  Max- 
imian.  They  were  colleagues,  just  as  the  consuls  of  the  Republic 
had  been,  and  all  official  acts  were  in  their  joint  names ;  but  they 
divided  the  administration  upon  local  lines.     Diocletian,  residing 

1  This  term,  like  that  of  "  Barrack  Emperors,"  (p.  287),  is  due  to  Hodgkin. 


298  REORGANIZATION   OF   THE    EMPIRE. 

at  Nicomedia,  governed  the  East ;  Maximian,  making  Mediola- 
num  {Milan)  his  capital,  governed  the  West.  A  few  years  later 
the  principle  was  extended  further,  and  each  "  Augustus  "  associ- 
ated with  himself  a  "  Caesar,"  a  younger  man,  who  should  have 
charge  of  the  most  exposed  and  laborious  parts  of  his  dominions. 
Galerius  commanded  upon  the  Danube,  Constantius  in  Gaul  and 
Britain  ;  and  it  was  the  plan  that  when  either  Emperor  should  die 
or  abdicate,  his  Caesar  should  succeed  to  his  vacant  place.  In 
this  way  it  was  thought  that  provision  was  made  for  a  regular  and 
peaceful  succession  to  the  throne,  —  the  weakest  point  in  the 
constitution  of  the  Empire. 

-^-  Oriental  Despotism.  —  AVith  four  emperors  at  the  head  of  af- 
fairs, there  was  no  longer  any  danger  that  a  successful  rebellion 
would  change  the  occupant  of  the  throne  at  one  blow.  But  Dio- 
cletian did  not  merely  place  the  imperial  office  upon  a  new  basis, 
—  he  gave  it  a  new  character  and  authority.  The  Senate  now 
wholly  ceased  to  be  a  part  of  the  government,  and  from  this  time 
was  hardly  more  than  the  municipal  council  of  Rome.  All  author- 
ity and  law  emanated  from  the  Emperor.  But  the  Emperor's 
authority  was  not  merely  an  actual  autocracy,  such  as  Julius  Caesar 
and  Septimius  Severus  had  exercised ;  it  was  remodelled  after  the 
type  of  oriental  monarchs,  and  surrounded  with  oriental  ceremo- 
nial and  homage.  The  Emperor  of  the  first  century  was  Prince, 
that  is,  "first  citizen";  the  Emperor  of  the  fourth  century,  as 
has  been  remarked,  was  a  Sultan} 

j,^  Re-organization  of  the  Provincial  System.  —  The  provincial 
system  was  also  remodelled.  In  the  time  of  Septimius  Severus 
there  were  about  forty  provinces,  all  of  them  outside  of  Italy ; 
and  all  were  ruled  as  subject  communities  by  governors  sent  from 
Rome.  Italy  was  under  a  wholly  independent  administration,  as 
being  in  law  a  part  of  the  city  of  Rome  (p.  175).  Under  Diocletian 
there  were  about  a  hundred  provinces,  Italy  being  now  placed  on  the 
same  footing  as  the  other  parts  of  the  Empire ;  and  these  were  all 
mere  districts  of  territory  for  administrative,  financial,  and  judicial 
1  Seeley's  Roman  Imperialism,  Lecture  3. 


PROVINCIAL   SYSTEM.  299 

purposes.  In  the  Republic  and  early  Empire  it  was  a  fundamental 
principle  that  the  provinces,  but  not  Italy,  were  subject  to  a  land- 
tax  or  tribute.  Now  the  land-tax,  like  other  taxes,  was  made 
uniform  in  all  parts  of  the  Empire.  Under  the  earlier  system 
every  province  stood  by  itself,  subject  to  Rome,  but  having  no 
organic  connection  with  the  other  provinces.  Diocletian  grouped 
them  into  larger  divisions  called  dioceses  ;  and  this  made  the  work 
of  administration  much  simpler  and  easier,  because  the  Vicai-,  or 
governor,  of  a  diocese  stood  between  the  Emperor  and  half  a 
dozen  governors  of  provinces.  Thus  the  administration  was  sys- 
tematized, and  the  functionaries  stood  in  successive  grades  from 
the  Emperor  to  the  lowest  official.  By  this  a  regularity  and  effi- 
ciency like  that  of  the  modern  bureaucracies  was  introduced  into 
the  public  service. 

Military  System.  —  At  the  same  time  with  this  reorganization 
of  the  civil  service,  another  reform  of  fundamental  value  separated 
the  civil  from  the  mihtary  authority.  The  governor  of  a  province 
had  been  its  absolute  master,  having  command  of  its  military 
forces  and  administering  justice  in  it,  as  well  as  being  its  executive 
head  ;  and  it  was  this  union  of  civil  and  mihtary  power  in  the 
same  hands  that  made  the  rebellions  of  the  provincial  governors 
so  formidable  a  danger  during  the  third  century.  The  military 
power  was,  by  Diocletian,  entirely  taken  away  from  the  provincial 
governors,  who  now  became  merely  civil  functionaries  ;  while  the 
army  was  placed  under  a  wholly  different  set  of  officers,  responsible 
to  the  Emperor  alone. 

Permanence  of  Diocletian's  Reforms.  —  By  thus  centralizing 
the  executive  power  in  the  hands  of  two  or  four  supreme  rulers, 
invested  with  absolute  power,  and  surrounded  with  a  pomp  and 
ceremonial  wholly  foreign  to  the  earlier  Roman  government ;  by 
transforming  the  administrative  system  into  an  official  bureaucracy, 
divested  of  all  military  power ;  and  by  establishing  a  uniformity 
of  administration  for  all  parts  of  the  Empire  ;  the  government 
acquired  a  degree  of  vigor  and  efficiency  which  gave  it  a  new  life, 
and  placed  the  name  of  Diocletian  among  those  of  the  great  law- 


300 


REORGANIZATION   OF   THE   EMPIRE. 


makers  and  organizers  of  history.  Some  parts  of  his  scheme 
broke  down  in  practice,  and  some  were  afterwards  changed  by 
Constantine ;  but,  on  the  whole,  the  principles  of  absolute  govern- 
ment now  put  in  operation,  not  only  held  their  own  during  the 
short  remaining  life  of  ancient  Rome,  but  have  been  the  controlling 
principles  in  the  courts  of  Europe  down  to  the  present  day. 

Tenth  Persecution  of  the  Christians.  —  The  name  of  Diocletian 
is  chiefly  associated,  in  most  minds,  not  with  his  great  work  as  an 
organizer  and  a  ruler,  but  with  the  "Tenth  Persecution"  of  the 
Christians,  ordered  by  him  in  the  year  303.^     The  cause  of  this 

would  seem  to  have  been  dread 
of  the  growing  strength  and  for- 
midable organization  of  the  Chris- 
tians, for  in  the  early  years  of  his 
reign  he  was  far  from  unfriendly 
to  them.  An  edict  of  the  year 
303,  followed  by  others  of  still 
greater  severity,  directed  the  Chris- 
tian churches  to  be  torn  down, 
ordered  their  sacred  writings  to 
be  given  up  and  destroyed,  and 
prohibited  all  their  assemblies. 
Christians  in  public  office  were  to 
be  removed  from  their  positions. 
Christians  of  low  rank  were  to  lose  their  civil  privileges,  and  those 
of  all  ranks  were  to  be  subject  to  torture.  The  mildness  and 
favorable  disposition  of  Constantius  Chlorus,  the  Western  Caesar, 
prevented  or  mitigated  the  execution  of  the  edict  in  the  regions 
under  his  rule.  In  the  other  parts  of  the  Empire  it  was  carried 
out  with  great  severity,  especially  under  Diocletian's  successor  in 
the  East,  Galerius,  a  bitter  enemy  of  Christianity.- 

1  The  ecclesiastical  writers  have  fixed  upon  this  number,  but  it  would  not 
be  easy  to  count  exactly  ten  distinct  persecutions. 

'^  For  this  persecution  read  Cardinal  Wiseman's  Fabiola,  or  the  Church  of  the 
Catacombs,  a  rather  dull  and  very  one-sided  work,  but  containing  an  authentic 
and  valuable  account  of  the  catacombs  and  their  relation  to  the  Church. 


CHRIST    AS    THE    GOOD    SHEPHERD. 
(From  the  Catacombs  ) 


CIVIL    WARS.  301 

Abdication  of  Diocletian.  — The  year  following  this  edict  Dio- 
cletian was  visited  by  a  severe  illness,  which  probably  hastened 
the  execution  of  a  long-cherished  purpose  to  retire  mto  private 
life  as  soon  as  his  scheme  of  government  should  be  fully 
in  operation.  He  and  his  colleague,  Maximian,  abdi-  a.D.  305, 
cated  on  the  same  day  at  their  respective  capitals.  Dio-  May  1. 
cletian  retired  to  his  splendid  residence  at  Salona  in 
Dalmatia,  where  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his  life  in  honorable 
leisure.  Maximian,  on  the  other  hand,  was  drawn  again  into 
public  life,  with  no  great  credit  to  himself,  by  the  disorders  of  the 
following  years.  Diocletian's  motive  in  this  act  has  been  the  sub- 
ject of  many  surmises.  Possibly  he  had  no  further  motive  than 
to  test  the  working  of  his  scheme  by  actual  experience.^ 

Failure  of  Ms  Scheme.  —  Diocletian's  abdication  made  evident 
the  weak  spot  in  his  scheme,  where  his  fondness  for  systematizing 
had  resulted  in  an  artificial  and  impracticable  rule  of  succession. 
It  took  no  account  of  human  relations  and  personal  ambitions  or 
the  accidents  of  life.     Galerius  and  Constantius  succeeded  to  the 
throne  without  opposition ;    but  when  Constantius  died 
suddenly  the  next  year,  his  troops  refused  to  recognize    A.D.  306, 
the  man  of  straw  whom  the  scheme  placed  over  them,      July  25. 
in  the  person  of  one  Severus,  but  proclaimed  Constantine, 
the  son  of  Constantius,  as  Emperor.     From  this  time  for  a  period 
of  eight  years  there  followed  a  dreary  succession  of  civil 
wars  between  rival  pretenders, — at  one  time  there  being    A.D.  307. 
six  claimants  to  the  imperial  throne.     The  events  of  this 
period  may  be  tabulated  as  follows  :  — 

A.D. 

305.  Abdication  of  Diocletian  and  Maximian;    East:   Galerius 

(Augustus),  Maximin  (Caesar)  ;    West:  Constantius  (Au- 
gustus), Severus  (Caesar). 

306.  Death  of  Constantius ;  Constantine  proclaimed ;  Maximian 

and  his  son  Maxentius  assume  the  imperial  title. 

1  This  is  the  suggestion  of  the  French  historian,  Michelet. 


302  REORGANIZATION  OF   THE   EMPIRE. 

A.D. 

307.    Severus  put  to  death  by  Maxentius  ;  Licinius  ])roclaime(l  by 
Galerius  for  the  West. 

310.  Maximian  put  to  death  by  Constantine. 

311.  April,  edict  of  toleration;  May,  death  of  Galerius;  Licinius 

and  Maximin  Emperors  in  the  East. 

312.  Oct.  27:  Maxentius  defeated  by  Constantine  in  the  battle 

of  the  Mulvian  Bridge,  and  drowned  in  the  Tiber ;  Con- 
stantine sole  Emperor  in  the  West. 

313.  April    30:   Maximin   defeated  by  Licinius  at  Adrianople ; 

died  shortly  after ;  murder  by  Licinius  of  the  families  of 
Galerius,  Severus,  and  Maximin ;  Licinius  sole  Emperor 
in  the  East. 

314.  Marriage  of  Licinius  with  Constantine's  sister;  war  between 

Constantine  and  Licinius  ;  peace  ;  the  Empire  divided  — 
Constantine  in  the  West,  Licinius  in  the  East. 

IL   Constantine  the  Great. 

Constantine's  Administration.  —  By  the  terms  of  the  treaty 
of  peace  made  after  the  war  between  Constantine  and 
A.D.  314.  Licinius,  Constantine  received  a  large  addition  of  terri- 
tory, so  that  his  dominions  extended  so  far  east  as  to 
comprise  Greece  and  Macedonia.  In  commemoration  of  his 
victory  a  magnificent  triumphal  arch  was  erected  by  the  Senate, 
which  is  still  standing  complete.^  His  Basilica,  likewise,  whose 
ruins  are  among  the  most  conspicuous  of  those  in  Rome,  was  built 
^t  this  period.  Entire  toleration  was  extended  to  the  Christians, 
and  great  favor  shown  to  them,  although  the  Emperor  did  not  yet 
declare  himself  a  convert.  The  most  important  administrative 
act  of  this  period  was  the  reform  of  the  currency,  which  had  fallen 
into  complete  confusion.     The  depreciation  of  the  currency  had 

1  It  must  not  be  understood  that  this  fine  work  represents  the  taste  and 
technical  skill  of  the  age.  Its  plan  and  details  are  for  the  most  part  taken 
from  earlier  monuments. 


REFORMS   OF  CONSTANTINE. 


303 


begun  in  the  time  of  Nero,  and  by  the  time  of  the  Severi  the 
silver  coinage  had  sunk  to  less  than  half  of  its  nominal  value, 
while  even  gold  was  so  uncertain  in  its  standard  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  weigh  the  coins  instead  of  counting  them.  Aurelian  and 
Diocletian  had  effected  some  reform  in  the  currency,  but  Constan- 
tine  restored  it  completely  to  its  purity  of  standard.  With  his 
coinage  begins  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  currency ;  the  solidus, 


ARCH    OF   CONSTANTINE. 


—  whose  name  bespeaks  its  character,  —  a  gold  coin  weighing  one 
seventy-second  of  a  pound,  being  the  starting-point  in  all  modern 
systems  of  money .^ 


1  Its  name  appears  in  the  French  sou  and  the  Italian  soldo,  whose  present 
value  (about  one  cent)  shows  the  depreciation  which  the  currency  has  again 
suffered  in  modern  times,  the  original  value  of  the  solidus  being  about  ^3.00, 


304  REORGANIZATION   OF   THE   EMPIRE. 

Bloodshed  in  the  Imperial  Families.  —  With  the  oriental  type 
of  monarchy  had  come  in  the  oriental  custom  of  securing  the 
throne  by  political  murder.  Licinius,  victor  in  the  East,  had  put 
to  death  the  families  of  Galerius,  Severus,  and  Maximin,  women 
and  children  inclusive ;  even  the  widow  of  Diocletian  shared  the 
fate  of  her  daughter,  the  widow  of  Galerius.  This  wholesale  blood- 
shed did  not  withhold  Constantine  from  bestowing  his  sister  in 
marriage  upon  its  perpetrator ;  and  when,  notwithstanding,  war 
had  a  second  time  broken  out  between  the  two  Emperors,  and 
victory  had  placed  Licinius  in  the  hands  of  his  brother-in-law, 
Constantine,  in  violation  of  a  positive  promise  made  to  his  sister, 
caused  Licinius  to  be  strangled  in  prison.  Thus,  in  the  year  323, 
Constantine  became  sole  Emperor,  and  ruled  with  unhmited 
power  for  fourteen  years.  In  this  period  two  events  of  special 
importance  deserve  to  be  mentioned  —  the  establishment  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  the  building  of  a  new  capital. 

-  Adoption  of  Christianity.  —  The  act  by  which  Constantine  is 
best  known,  and  by  which  he  earned  the  title  of  Great,  is  the 
adoption  of  Christianity  as  the  state  religion.  His  mother,  Helena, 
was  a  Christian ;  and  we  have  seen  that  his  father,  Constantius, 
protected  the  Christians.  But  he  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
brought  up  in  the  Christian  faith ;  at  all  events,  he  did  not  declare 
himself  a  Christian  until  near  his  death.  But  even  as  early  as 
the  year  311,  his  influence  secured  the  edict  of  universal  tolera- 
tion, —  the  persecutor  Galerius  and  the  rude  Licinius  alike  seeing 
the  impossibility  of  crushing  the  new  sect.  When  he 
A.D.  312.  marched  the  next  year  against  Maxentius,  he  caused  the 
Christian  symbol  ^  to  be  inscribed  upon  the  standards  and 
shields  of  the  army ;  and  it  was  believed  that  this  was  done  in 
consequence  of  a  vision.  But  the  events  which  followed  show 
that,  even  if  he  was  a  Christian  in  belief,  which  is  hardly  likely, 
he  was  not  one  in  heart. 

Policy  of  Toleration.  —  As  Emperor,  he  held  the  old  republican 

^  The  monogram  XP  (^Christos)  on  a  banner  of  crimson  silk  called  the 
Laba7-wn, 


CONSTANTINE. 


305 


306  REORGANIZATION   OF   THE   EMPIRE. 

dignity  of  Pontifex  Maximiis,  or  official  head  of  the  state  rehgion  ; 
and  it  was  as  Pontifex  Maximus,  —  a  title  which  his  Christian  suc- 
cessors also  held  for  half  a  century  longer,  and  which  is  now  borne 
by  the  Roman  Popes,  —  that  he  assumed  authority  over  the  Chris- 
tian organization,  making  it  the  official  religion  ;  but  the  pagan 
worship  was  still  tolerated  until  nearly  the  end  of  the  century, 
when  it  was  proscribed  by  Theodosius  the  Great  (p.  315). 

Christianity  as  an  Organization.  —  Christianity  had  been, 
during  the  two  first  centuries  of  its  existence,  a  spiritual  faith  and 
moral  impulse,  rather  than  a  body  of  doctrines  or  an  organized 
power.  The  work  of  the  third  century  was  that  of  organization 
(p.  282)  ;  and  the  persecution  of  Diocletian  found  the  church  a 
strong,  coherent  association,  pervading  every  corner  of  the  Empire. 
It  was  apprehension  of  the  strength  of  this  power  within  the  state 
that  incited  Diocletian  to  persecute.  Constantine,  too,  saw  the 
immense  power  which  the  Christian  church  had  gained,  but  instead 
of  attempting  to  crush  it,  he  determined  to  ally  himself  with  it, 
and  make  it  serviceable  as  an  instrument  of  government. 

Christian  Doctrine.  —  Christianity  had  now  advanced  to  a  third 
stage  in  its  development.  Having  been  first  a  company  of  scat- 
tered believers,  and  having  now  become  an  organized  church,  it 
next  proceeded  to  formulate  its  beliefs.  The  work  of  the  church 
in  the  fourth  century  was  to  determine  its  creed,  or  authoritative 
set  of  doctrines.  A  series  of  controversies  now  began,  which  dis- 
tracted the  church  for  several  centuries,  and  by  the  virulence  of 
the  debates  which  they  excited,  and  the  intolerant  spirit  which 
they  engendered,  exercised  a  baleful  influence  upon  the  spirit  of 
Christianity.  All  the  intellectual  activity  of  the  age  concentrated 
itself  in  the  field  of  speculative  theology,  and  was  busily  engaged 
in  determining  questions  of  faith,  many  of  which  were  upon  points 
too  subtle  to  be  expressed  in  any  language  except  Greek.  En- 
gaged in  these  polemics,  the  officers  of  the  church  lost  that  burn- 
ing zeal  for  rectitude  and  purity  of  life  which  had  been  its  great 
power  in  the  earher  centuries. 

The  Arian  and  Athanasian  Controversy.  —  At  the  time  that 


THE    COUNCIL    OF  NICMA.  307 

Constantine  became  sole  Emperor,  a  violent  controversy  was 
raging,  upon  the  most  fundamental  of  these  questions  —  the  nature 
of  Christ  and  his  relation  to  the  Father.  The  original  seat  of  this 
controversy  was  Alexandria,  the  home  of  the  subtlest  intellects  of 
this  age,  and  the  two  parties  were  headed  by  two  ecclesiastics  of 
Alexandria,  Arius  and  Athanasius.  At  first  Constantine  attempted 
to  discourage  what  seemed  to  him  idle  discussion  upon  a  question 
incapable  of  solution.  He  saw  at  last  that  no  peace  was  possible 
without  an  authoritative  decision  of  the  question,  and  summoned 
for  this  purpose  a  general  council  of  the  rulers  of  the  church,  to 
be  held  at  Nicaea,  near  his  residence  Nicomedia,  in  the  year 
325.  It  was  the  first  of  the  great  series  of  so-called  Oecumen- 
ical Councils,  held  at  intervals  for  the  settlement  of  these  con- 
troversies. 

The  Council  of  Nicsea,  A.D.  325. — Although  called  a  general 
council  of  the  church,  it  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  confined 
to  the  church  of  the  East,  where  alone  any  real  interest  was  felt  in 
these  subtilties.  The  church  of  the  West  concerned  itself  rather 
with  practical  matters.  Of  the  318  bishops  who  were  present, 
only  seven  or  eight  were  from  the  West ;  even  Rome  was  only 
represented  by  two  priests.  The  assembly  was  summoned  and 
presided  over  by  the  Emperor,  who,  although  not  yet  in  name 
a  Christian,  was  nevertheless,  as  pontifex  maximus,  the  oi^cial 
head  of  religion.  The  debates  were  long  and  acrimonious.  The 
Emperor  had  at  first  inclined  to  the  party  of  Arius  ;  but  he  changed 
his  attitude,  and  at  length  threw  the  weight  of  his  authority  in  the 
opposite  scale.  The  doctrine  of  Athanasius,  as  formulated  in  the 
so-called  Nicene  Creed,  was  now  made  the  orthodox  or  accepted 
doctrine,  and  was  designated  by  the  term  Homonsian  (of  the  same 
substance  with  the  Father),  the  opposing  doctrine  being  known  as 
Hojuoionsian  (of  like  substance).  But  the  Arian  doctrine,  now 
condemned  as  a  heresy,  and  proscribed  in  the  church  of  the  Em- 
pire, had  yet  a  history  of  great  importance.  When  the  German 
invaders  of  the  Empire  were  converted  to  Christianity,  it  was  in 
nearly  every  case  the  Arian   form    of  this    religion  which   they 


308  REORGANIZATION  OF   THE   EMPIRE. 

received.      The  historical  consequences  of  this  fact  do  not  fall 
within  the  limits  of  the  present  work. 

Death  of  Crispus. — Shortly  after  the  Council  of  Nicsea,  Con- 
stantine  committed  the  greatest  crime  of  his  life,  in  putting  to 
death  his  son  Crispus.  The  cause  of  this  act  is  a  mystery,  but  it 
is  supposed  that  he  had  conceived  a  jealous  suspicion  of  this 
promising  and  popular  young  man,  and  that  this  suspicion  was 
fomented  by  his  second  wife,  Fausta,  who  wished  to  secure  the 
succession  to  her  own  worthless  sons.  At  any  rate,  the  death  of 
Crispus  was  soon  followed  by  bitter  remorse,  and  by  vengeance 
inflicted  upon  Fausta.  The  only  event  of  history  to  be  com- 
pared with  this  tragedy  is  the  execution  of  Alexis,  son  of  Peter  the 
Great,  at  his  father's  command ;  but  Alexis  was  a  turbulent  and 
dangerous  character,  while  Crispus  was,  according  to  all  accounts, 
a  worthy  heir  to  the  throne.  It  was  not  only  a  crime,  but  a  public 
disaster ;  for  by  Crispus'  death  the  crown  passed  to  heirs  as  low 
in  ability  as  in  character. 

Administrative  Reorganization.  —  A  year  or  two  after  the 
death  of  Crispus,  Constantine  accomplished  the  second  great  act 
of  his  reign,  the  establishment  of  a  new  capital.  A  glance  at  the 
map  shows  that  the  Empire,  consisting  of  the  countries  which  lie 
about  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  was  excessively  long  from  east  to 
west  in  proportion  to  its  breadth.  This  was  a  chief  cause  of  the 
difficulties  of  administration,  and  we  have  seen  that  Diocletian 
endeavored  to  remedy  it  by  having  an  Emperor  reside  at  each 
end  of  the  Empire  (p.  298).  This  scheme  was  broken  down  by 
its  complexity,  but  Constantine  carried  out  its  fundamental  idea 
in  a  more  practical  way.  As  Diocletian  had  grouped  the  prov- 
inces into  dioceses  (p.  299),  so  Constantine  united  the  dioceses 
into  four  large  divisions,  governed  by  praetorian  praefects,  who  were 
all  equally  under  the  authority  of  the  Emperor.  Thus  the  unity 
of  the  imperial  office  was  maintained,  and  in  place  of  the  two 
August!  and  their  two  Caesars  there  were  now  four  praetorian  prse- 
fects,  with  only  civil  powers,  at  the  head  of  the  four  great  divisions 
of  the  Empire ;  each  praefecture  being  divided  into  dioceses,  thir- 


\S 


t3 


Cfhaoi 


3^ 


jhersonesus 


FOUNDING    OF  CONSTANTINOPLE.  309 

teen  in  number  in  the  whole  Empire,  and  the  dioceses  containing 
an  average  of  eight  or  nine  provinces  apiece.^  The  number  of 
provinces  was  now  one  hundred  and  twenty. 

Foundation  of  a  New  Capital.  —  Rome  was  no  longer  fitted  to 
be  the  capital  of  this  wide-extended  Empire.  It  was  too  far  from 
the  centre  and  from  the  field  of  active  operations.  Diocletian, 
during  his  long  reign,  never  visited  his  capital  but  once ;  he  made 
his  residence  at  Nicomedia,  which  was  now  the  Eastern  capital, 
while  "Milan  became  practically  the  capital  of  the  West.  But 
Nicomedia  was  neither  accessible  enough  nor  defensible  enough. 
Constantine  determined  to  build  a  new  capital  for  the  eastern  half 
of  his  Empire,  —  a  new  Rome,  which  should  be  a  worthy  rival  of 
the  old.  The  spot  which  he  selected  for  this  purpose  has  been 
universally  recognized  to  be  of  all  within  his  reach  the  one  pos- 
sessing the  most  commanding  situation  and  best  fitted  to  be  the 
capital  of  the  world.  And  yet,  although  his  decision  seems  to  us 
self-evident,  it  was  only  after  long  and  careful  dehberation  that  he 
fixed  upon  the  site  of  Byzantium. 

Constantinople.  —  The  Bosporus,  the  great  stream  of  water 
which  flows  from  the  Black  Sea  to  the  Mediterranean,  dividing 
the  continents  of  Europe  and  Asia,  broadens  out  about  midway  of 
its  course  into  a  sea  of  moderate  extent,  —  the  Propontis,  or,  as 
we  call  it,  the  Sea  of  Marmora.  At  just  this  point  a  deep  inlet, 
the  Golden  Horn,  runs  up  into  the  shore  of  Europe,  and  on  the 
triangular  space  between  the  Golden  Horn  and  the  Propontis  the 
Greeks  had  founded  their  colony  of  Byzantium.  It  was  this  city 
that  Constantine  determined  to  take  as  the  nucleus  of  his  New 
Rome.  His  new  capital  was  a  city  of  magnificent  proportions. 
Its  walls  were  laid  out  at  a  distance  of  two  miles  outside  those  of 
the  old  ;  and  it  was  not  easy,  in  an  Empire  which  was  not  growing 
in  wealth  or  population,  to  fill  up  so  enormous  a  space  with  in- 
habitants. But  the  presence  of  the  court,  the  commercial  advan- 
tages of  the  situation,  the  magnificence  of  the  new  city,  and  the 

^  See  map  of   The  Roman  Empire  divided  into  Prefectures. 


310  REORGANIZATION  OF   THE   EMPIRE. 

offer  of  extraordinary  favors  and  privileges  soon  attracted  settlers  ; 
so  that  even  when  the  Empire  did  not  flourish,  the  city  of  Con- 
stantine  grew.  The  formal  founding  of  this  New  Rome  was  on 
the  fourth  of  November,  328. 

The  Municipalities.  —  One  of  the  most  significant  signs  of 
social  decay  in  the  later  Empire  is  found  in  the  condition  of  the 
municipalities.  In  the  early  Empire  these  had  been  the  seat  of  a 
vigorous  and  healthy  self-government,  and  their  constitution  rested 
upon  the  popular  will.  As  early  as  the  time  of  Trajan  we  note 
indications  of  loss  of  prosperity  (p.  263),  and  in  the  disintegration 
of  the  third  century  a  fundamental  change  in  their  government 
seems  to  have  taken  place.  From  this  time  they  appear  as  narrow 
oHgarchies,  in  which  all  power  is  vested  in  a  few  rich  citizens, 
who  composed  the  municipal  Senate  or  Curia,  and  hence  were 
called  cuiiales  or  decuiions.  The  fourth  century  marks  another 
downward  stage.  This  privileged  class  itself,  the  curialcs,  has  now 
become  rather  the  bearer  of  burdens  than  the  possessor  of  power. 
The  cities  being  territorial  districts  (p.  160),  the  regular  sub- 
divisions of  the  provinces,  they  were  naturally  made  use  of  in  the 
machinery  of  taxation ;  and  as  the  taxes  now  became  heavier  and 
heavier  with  the  increasing  cost  of  government,  the  duty  of  collect- 
ing them,  being  placed  upon  the  municipality,  gave  rise  to  a  per- 
sonal responsibihty  for  the  taxes  on  the  part  of  its  members,  the 
ctiriales.  The  burdens  thus  laid  upon  them  they  of  course  shifted 
to  others,  and  all  classes  of  society  were  alike  crushed  by  an  un- 
bearable weight  of  taxation.  One  of  the  great  services  which  the 
emperor  Valentinian  rendered  to  the  poorer  classes  was  the  crea- 
tion of  a  new  magistracy  (a.d.  364),  that  of  Defense}-  Ctvitatis, 
to  protect  them  against  the  exactions  of  the  curiales. 


CONSTANTIUS  II.  311 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

THE  TRIUMPH   OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

Death  of  Constantine. —  Constantine  the  Great  died  May  22, 
337,  having  been  baptized  a  short  time  before  his  death.  The 
death  of  Crispus  was  now  bitterly  avenged  upon  his  house  and  his 
people.  Fully  aware  of  the  unfitness  of  his  three  sons,  Constan- 
tine, Constantius,  and  Constans,  the  Emperor  did  not  venture  to 
appoint  either  of  them  his  sole  heir,  but  divided  the  Empire  be- 
tween them,  joining  with  them  in  the  administration  their  two 
cousins,  Dalmatius  and  HannibaHanus.  But  before  the  year  was 
out,  the  three  sons  of  Constantine  brought  about  the  murder  of 
their  cousins,  and  divided  the  Empire  between  themselves  alone. 

Constantius  II.,  337-361.  —  In  a  few  years  the  death  of  his 
two  brothers  *  placed  the  sole  rule  in  the  hands  of  Constantius,  a 
prince  with  a  great  taste  for  theological  controversy,  but  endowed 
with  neither  virtue  nor  capacity  to  govern.  As  the  family  of  Con- 
stantine was  near  extinction,  and  the  affairs  of  the  Empire  were 
steadily  growing  worse,  Constantius  associated  in  the 
rule  his  cousin  Julian,  with  the  title  of  Caesar.  This  a.D.  355. 
able  and  energetic  prince  soon  restored  order  and  good 
government  in  the  western  provinces  which  were  assigned  to  him, 
and  to  him  belongs  the  distinction  of  being  the  last  general  of 
the  Empire  who  placed  an  effectual  check  upon  the  impending 
advance  of  the  German  barbarians. 

The  Alamannians.  —  We  have  seen  that  the  Germans  upon  the 
Rhine  had  gathered  into  two  formidable  confederacies,  the  Franks 
and  the  Alamannians,  and  had  pushed  across  the  frontier  of  the 
Empire  to  seek  for  themselves  new  homes.     The  strong  Illyrian 

1  A.D.  340,  death  of  Constantine  II.;    350,  of  Constans. 


312  THE    TRIUMPH  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

emperors  had  held  these  invaders  in  check,  and  had  even  made 
of  them  a  serviceable  mihtary  force.  But  in  the  reign  of  the  weak 
Constantius  the  Germans  pressed  forward  again ;  the  Alamannians 
already  possessed  the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine,  and  now  they 
began  to  cross  that  river,  and  take  possession  of  the  same  country 
from  which  Ariovistus  had  been  expelled  four  hundred  years 
before  (p.  206). 

Battle  of  Strassburg.  —  Julian  met  the  invaders  at  Strassburg 
in  August,  357,  and  defeated  them  with  great  slaughter  after  a 
long  and  hard-fought  battle.  The  "boar's  head,"  the  wedge- 
shaped  battle  column  of  the  Germans,  was  pushed  fonvard  with 
energy,  and  for  a  while  with  success,  but  it  could  not  withstand 
the  discipline  and  effective  armament  of  the  Roman  legions ;  and 
when  both  parties  had  brought  up  their  reserves,  the  Romans  were 
left  masters  of  the  field.  We  say  Roma?is;  but  the  Roman  le- 
gions were  now  principally  composed  of  German  volunteers  and 
auxiliaries.  It  was  German  against  German,  but  Roman  discipline 
against  only  half-trained  courage.  Thus  the  Alamannians  were 
driven  back  for  the  present  from  the  fields  of  Alsace,  but  it  was 
only  for  a  time.  They  were  an  orderly  and  industrious  people, 
who  were  not  in  search  of  conquests  but  of  homes ;  and  before  a 
century  had  passed  they  had  again  begun  to  spread  over  the  left 
bank  of  the  Rhine,  through  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  where  their 
descendants  remain  to  the  present  day. 

Julian  Emperor,  360-363.  —  During  three  years  Julian  was 
engaged  in  settling  the  affairs  of  Gaul  along  the  Rhine ;  but  he 
was  constantly  menaced  by  the  jealousy  and  hostility  of  Constan- 
tius, and  in  360  he  was  proclaimed  by  his  soldiers  Augustus  at 
Paris,^  his  capital.  War  was  threatened,  but  Constantius  died  the 
next  year,  and  Juhan  peacefully  occupied  the  throne  of  the  united 
Empire. 

Julian's  Apostasy.  —  Julian,  like  the  rest  of  the  family  of  Con- 
stantine,  was  brought  up  as  a  Christian  ;  but  his  upright  soul  re- 

1  Iiitetia  Parisioru/ii,  the  chief  town  of  the  Parisii;  as  in  numerous  other 
cases,  the  name  of  the  modern  city  is  derived  from  that  of  the  ancient  tribe. 


JULIAN  THE  APOSTATE.  313 

volted  at  the  perfidies  and  cruelties  of  the  imperial  house,  and 
his  intellect  was  repelled  by  the  metaphysical  hair-splitting  and 
the  incessant  bickerings  of  the  Christian  theologians.  He  was  a 
man  somewhat  like  Marcus  Aurelius,  but  of  a  more  robust  nature, 
and  with  more  taste  for  intellectual  subtilties.  The  refinements  of 
Neo-platonism,  which  tried  to  pour  new  wine  into  the  old  bottles 
of  pagan  mythology  (p.  283),  attracted  his  mind  rather  than  the 
dogmatisms  of  Christian  theology ;  and  Christianity  as  a  religion, 
as  a  moral  force,  seems  never  to  have  been  presented  to  his  mind. 

Restoration  of  Paganism.  —  As  soon  as  he  was  able  to  think 
for  himself,  therefore,  Julian  cast  away  the  system  of  faith  in  which 
he  had  been  trained,  and  ardently  devoted  himself  to  reviving  the 
dead  rites  and  beliefs  of  paganism.  He  was  of  a  humane  spirit, 
and  did  not  institute  any  persecution  of  Christianity,  but  made  it 
his  effort  to  discourage  it  among  his  subjects.  For  this 
purpose  he  issued  edicts  ordering  all  municipal  prop-  A.D.  362. 
^erty  which  had  been  given  to  the  churches  by  Constan- 
tine  to  be  restored,  and  forbidding  Christians  to  instruct  in  gram- 
mar and  rhetoric,  —  thus  cutting  them  off  from  the  most  effective 
means  of  propagating  their  faith.  The  shortness  of  Julian's  reign 
gives  this  pagan  reaction  the  appearance  of  a  mere  passing  inci- 
dent ;  if  he  had  lived  longer  it  is  impossible  not  to  believe  that 
he  would  have  been  forced  to  a  persecution  of  the  Christians, 
probably  the  most  relentless  of  all. 

Campaign  in  the  East.  —  Affairs  in  the  West  were  now  quiet, 
but  a  storm  was  arising  in  the  East.  Sapor  H.  of  Persia,  an  en- 
ergetic and  ambitious  sovereign,  had  invaded  the  eastern  provinces, 
and  gained  great  successes.  But  JuHan  was  an  antagonist  of  a 
different  type  from  Constantius.  Crossing  the  Euphrates  with  a 
powerful  army,  he  marched  down  the  left  bank  of  that  river  to  the 
region  of  Babylon,  opened  a  canal  from  the  Euphrates  to  the 
Tigris,  and  through  this  conveyed  his  forces  to  attack  the  Persian 
forces  on  the  Tigris.  The  Persians  resisted  with  energy 
his  passage  of  this  river,  but  were  routed  in  a  decisive  A.D.  363, 
battle  and   forced  to  retreat  to  the  highlands  beyond.      May  27. 


314  THE    TRIUMPH   OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

Here  Julian  undertook,  in  emulation  of  Alexander  the  Great,  to 
follow  them,  but  was  obliged  to  turn  back  from  lack  of  provisions. 
In  a  skirmish  on  the  return  march  he  was  killed  by  a  Persian 
arrow,  June  26,  363.  His  chief  officer,  Jovian,  was  at  once  pro- 
claimed Emperor  in  his  place. 

Valentinian  I.,  364-375. — After  a  reign  of  less  than  a  year 
Jovian  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Valentinian,  one  of  the  ablest 
emperors  of  the  century  and  with  many  of  the  best  qualities  'as  a 
ruler.  But  his  virtues  were  offset  by  an  extreme  of  severity,  even 
amounting  to  blood-thirstiness.  He  was  chaste  and  just,  but  his 
justice  was  not  tempered  with  mercy.  Unfortunately  for  the  Em- 
pire he  associated  with  him  his  brother  Valens  as  a  colleague, 
assigning  to  him  the  Eastern  praefecture,  with  Constantinople  as 
a  capital ;  and  Valens  was  a  wholly  incompetent  ruler.  After  a 
reign  of  eleven  years,  spent  in  energetic  and  unremitting  efforts 
to  hold  together  his  fast  crumbling  dominions,  a  good  ruler  in 

most  respects,  but  stained  with  many  acts  of  ferocious 
A.D.  375.     cruelty,  Valentinian  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  two 

sons,  Gratian  and  Valentinian  H.,  —  the  latter  an  infant. 
A.D.  378.     Three  years  later,  Valens  was  succeeded  in  the  East  by 

Theodosius,  called  the  Great  (p.  320). 
Gratian,  375-383.  —  Gratian  was  a  mild  and  cultivated  prince, 
with  the  qualities  of  a  good  ruler  and  a  good  commander.  He 
was  a  sincere  upholder  of  the  Christian  faith,  which  he  held  in 
the  orthodox  form,  —  that  which  had  carried  the  day  in  the 
Council  of  Nicaea,  —  while  his  uncle  Valens  was  an  adherent  of 
the  Arian  heresy.     In  the  ardor  of  his  partisanship,  Gratian  took 

a  step  which  led  the  way  to  the  greatest  evils  and  dis- 
A.D.  376.     graces  of  Christian  history,  by  issuing  an  edict  which 

forbade  freedom  of  worship  to  all  the  heretical  sects. 
This  step  is  supposed  to  have  been  taken  under  the  influence  of 
the  illustrious  Ambrose,  Bishop  of  Milan,  the  greatest  ecclesiastic 
and  probably  the  greatest  man  of  his  time,  but  whose  uncom- 
promising devotion  to  his  faith  coincided  too  well  with  his  senti- 
ment of  the  interests  of  his  order  to  leave  room  for  the  policy 


SUPPRESSION   OF  PAGANISM.  315 

of  toleration.  With  this  act  the  Christian  church  dehberately 
adopted  the  policy  of  persecution  of  other  Christians  on  ground 
of  difference  in  belief.  Gratian  was  also  the  first  Roman  Emperor 
who  laid  aside  the  title  of  pontifex  maximus,  which  had  properly 
been  borne  by  the  pagan  emperors,  but  was  inconsistent  with  the 
present  relations  of  church  and  state.  It  was  afterward  assumed 
by  the  bishops  of  Rome. 

The  Final  Establishment  of  Christianity.  —  Within  a  a.d.  383 
few  years  both  Gratian  and  Valentinian  II.  were  mur-  and  392. 
dered,  and  Theodosius,  their  Eastern  colleague,  now 
reunited  the  Empire  and  reigned  as  sole  Emperor  for  A.D.  391, 
three  years.  Theodosius  completed  the  work'  of  Gratian  Feb.  24. 
by  the  promulgation  of  an  edict  forbidding  all  exercise 
of  the  heathen  rites  of  worship.-^  Orthodox  Christianity  was  from 
this  time  the  only  lawful  religion. 

1  This  edict  was  issued  during  the  life  of  Valentinian  II.  ;  but  it  will  be 
remembered  that  in  theory  the  authority  of  each  Emperor  extended  over  the 
whole  Empire  (p.  297). 


316  THE  BARBARIAN  INVASIONS. 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 

THE   BARBARIAN   INVASIONS. 

I.    The  Visigoths  upon  the  Danube. 

The  Three  Critical  Events  of  the  Fourth  Century.  —  ^Ve  have 
followed  the  fortunes  of  the  Roman  Empire  from  its  foundation 
by  x'Vugustus,  through  its  career  of  greatness  and  glory,  and  then  of 
disintegration,  to  its  reorganization  and  new  life  under  Diocletian 
and  Constantine.  We  have  seen  how  the  effort  to  infuse  a  new 
life  into  the  religions  of  the  pagan  world  had  broken  down  (p.  284), 
and  a  new  religion,  possessing  at  once  greater  vital  force,  higher 
spirituality,  and  stronger  moral  power,  had  conquered  society. 
We  now  pass  to  the  third  great  series  of  events  of  the  closing 
years  of  the  Empire,  —  the  infusion  into  the  decaying  population 
of  the  Old  World  of  a  new  and  more  healthy  element,  in  the 
German  barbarians  of  the  North.  The  conquest  of  the  Empire 
by  these  peoples  was  not  an  unmixed  benefit.  The  good  as  well 
as  the  bad  of  ancient  society  was  ruthlessly  trampled  down.  The 
new  masters  of  the  world  were  incapable  of  administering  the 
elaborate  system  of  government  which  had  been  worked  out  by 
the  practical  genius  of  the  Romans,  and  society  had  to  create  a 
new  set  of  institutions  and  a  new  social  structure.^  Nevertheless, 
these  invasions  were,  in  the  long  run,  a  good  thing.  Society  did, 
after  a  long  time,  come  out  of  the  crisis  better  and  stronger,  under 

1  Under  the  rule  of  the  Franks  the  financial  system  of  the  Empire  gradually 
gave  way  to  a  species  of  N'aturahvirthschaft,  in  which  the  obligatory  services 
of  individuals,  and  contributions  in  kind,  took  the  place  of  taxes;  while  a 
crude  militia  system  was  substituted  for  the  standing  army,  and  civil,  military, 
and  judicial  powers  were  all  united  in  the  same  hands,  as  before  the  reforms 
of  Diocletian  and  Constantine  (p.  299). 


THE  GERMAN  OE   THE   EAST  AND    THE    WEST.      317 

the  control  of  its  new  members  ;  while  it  is  a  question  whether 
ancient  civilization  had  not  sunk  too  low  to  be  inspired  with  new 
life. 

The  Germans.  —  When  we  call  the  Germans  barbarians,  we  use 
this  word  in  its  scientific  sense,  to  designate  a  people  by  no  means 
at  the  lowest  social  stage,  but  also  not  yet  advanced  to  the  stage 
of  conscious  civilization.  The  Greeks,  as  depicted  by  Homer, 
were  barbarians,  but  with  the  capacity  of  unlimited  progress.  So 
the  Germans,  as  described  by  Caesar  and  Tacitus,  and  even  when 
they  conquered  new  homes  for  themselves  within  the  limits  of  the 
Empire,  were  barbarians;  but  they  possessed  a  healthy  moral 
nature,  pure  domestic  relations,  systematic  industry,  and  a  well- 
ordered  political  system  of  remarkable  efficiency  and  adaptability. 

The  Germans  within  the  Empire.  —  The  Germans  were  not 
new-comers  at  the  period  which  we  have  reached.  For  years, 
even  for  centuries,  they  had  been  gaining  a  foothold  within  the 
limits  of  the  Empire.  The  entire  left  bank  of  the  Rhine  was  in 
the  possession  of  German  settlers  (p.  285),  and  the  Roman  army 
was  principally  composed  of  German  mercenaries.  We  shall  even 
see.  Germans,  within  a  very  few  years,  occupying  the  highest  places 
of  government  and  administration,  and  at  last  by  their  will  deter- 
mining the  destiny  of  the  Empire.  What  was  new  at  this  period 
was  the  forcible  entrance  of  organized  nations  within  the  bounda- 
ries of  the  Empire,  sweeping  over  its  entire  extent,  and  carving 
out  for  themselves  national  kingdoms  from  the  territories  which 
they  occupied.  The  Franks  and  Alamannians,  in  the  West,  had 
setded  in  the  fields  of  the  Empire  by  a  gradual  process  of  colo- 
nization. The  Goths  and  Vandals,  in  the  East,  moved  as  hostile 
armies,  conquered  lands  for  themselves,  and  set  up  in  them  their 
already  organized  kingdoms.  And  yet  they  too  entered  the  Em- 
pire as  colonists ;  entire  nations,  —  men,  women,  and  children, 
with  their  flocks  and  herds  and  possessions  of  every  kind,  — 
traversing  the  countries  of  the  Empire  in  long  wagon-trains,  fight- 
ing their  way  with  the  sword,  and  occupying  by  force  lands  which 
they  might  afterwards  cultivate  in  peace. 


318  THE   BARBARIAN  INVASIONS. 

The  Gothic  Empire.  —  This  new  and  most  impressive 
B.C.  376.  series  of  events  was  commenced  by  the  invasion  of  the 
Visigoths.  We  have  seen  (p.  284)  that  the  Goths  had,  in 
the  second  century,  moved  from  their  earher  seats  upon  the  Baltic, 
and  estabhshed  themselves  upon  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea ;  and 
that  even  the  conqueror  Aurelian  had  found  himself  obliged  to 
cede  to  them  the  province  of  Dacia  north  of  the  Danube  (p.  293), 
so  that  their  dominions  now  extended  from  that  river  to  the 
Crimean  peninsula.  They  were  in  two  divisions,  the  East  Goths 
{Ostrogoths),  dwellers  in  the  steppe,  and  the  West  Goths  {Visi- 
goths), dwellers  in  the  forest.  The  Ostrogoths  were  recognized  as 
the  superiors,  although  they  had  no  very  well-defined  authority  or 
right  of  command  over  their  brethren ;  and  their  great  king, 
Ermanarich,  was  one  of  the  most  powerful  sovereigns  of  his  time. 
The  Ostrogoths  were  still  stoutly  attached  to  their  heathen  faith ; 
while  the  Visigoths,  nearer  to  the  Empire,  had  been  in  part  con- 
verted to  the  Arian  form  of  Christianity.  Their  bishop,  the  illus- 
trious Ulfilas,  had  translated  the  Scriptures  into  their  tongue  ; 
portions  of  this  translation  are  still  extant,  an  invaluable  record 
of  the  early  forms  of  Germanic  speech. 

The  Invasion  of  the  Huns.  —  A  rude  shock  from  a  distant  and 
unexpected  quarter  overthrew  the  Ostrogothic  empire,  and  in  its 
results  forced  both  Gothic  nations  to  seek  new  homes.  This  event 
was  one  of  those  rapid  and  resistless  movements  of  savage  hordes, 
—  as  unforeseen  and  unaccountable  as  a  flight  of  locusts,  —  which 
at  various  times  in  history  have  swept  from  the  regions  of  Central 
Asia,  bringing  terror  and  desolation  among  the  inhabitants  of  the 
civilized  West.^  The  Huns,  of  Tartar  race,  small,  dark-hued, 
and  hideous  of  feature,  mounted  on  small,  nimble  horses,  upon 
which  they  passed  most  of  their  lives,  poured  resistlessly  over  the 
steppes  of  Russia,  prostrated  the  Ostrogothic  power,  and  extended 

1  There  have  been  at  least  six  of  these  waves,  —  the  Huns,  in  the  fourth 
century;  the  Avars,  in  the  sixth;  the  Magyars,  or  Hungarians,  in  the  ninth; 
the  Seljukian  Turks  (of  whom  the  Ottomans  were  an  offshoot),  in  the  eleventh; 
the  Mongols,  in  the  thirteenth;   and  the  Tartars  at  the  end  of  the  fourteenth. 


BATTLE    OF  ADRIANOPLE.  319 

their  dominion  over  all  Germany.     The  Visigoths,  not  exposed  to 
the  direct  shock  of  the  invasion,  had  time  to  take  refuge 
upon  the  banks  of  the  Danube,  and  there  entreated  per-    a.D.  376. 
mission  to  cross  and  receive  lands  as   subjects   of  the 
Empire.     A  few  Ostrogoths  were  in  their  company. 

Passage  of  the  Danube.  —  There  was  vacant  land  enough 
within  the  limits  of  an  empire  which  was  losing  every  day  in  pop- 
ulation ;  and  it  was  for  the  interest  of  all  that  these  vacant  fields 
should  be  filled  up  with  the  healthy  offspring  of  a  people  which 
was  rapidly  increasing  in  numbers,  and  needed  homes.  After 
some  hesitation,  therefore,  Valens  consented  to  grant  to  the  Visi- 
goths lands  south  of  the  Danube.  It  was  agreed  that  they  should 
give  up  their  arms,  cross  the  river  peaceably,  and  be  distributed 
in  the  unoccupied  lands  of  the  Balkan  peninsula. 

Battle  of  Adrianople.  —  But  the  well-devised  plan  was  frustrated 
by  the  knavery  of  the  Roman  officials  who  had  its  execution  in 
charge.  By  their  corrupt  connivance  the  Goths  were  allowed  to 
keep  their  arms  ;  by  their  greediness  the  newcomers  were  de- 
frauded of  promised  supphes  ;  and  by  their  perfidy  they  were 
driven  into  open  rebellion.  The  Emperor  Valens  hastened  against 
the  insurgents,  but  was  totally  defeated  in  the  battle  of  Adrianople 
(Aug.  9,  378)  ;  and  the  Emperor  lost  his  life  after  the  battle.^ 

Theodosius  the  Great.  —  The  young  Emperor  of  the  West, 
Gratian,  was  on  his  way  to  the  assistance  of  his  uncle,  and  had 
already  reached  the  lower  Danube,  when  Valens  was  driven  by  the 
impatience  of  his  troops  to  engage  in  the  disastrous  battle,  without 
waiting  for  the  re-info rcements.  Left  in  sole  possession  of  the 
imperial  power,  for  his  brother  Valentinian  was  too  young  to  take 
any  active  part  in  the  government,  Gratian  searched  for  a  fit 
person  with  whom  to  share  a  task  too  great  for  his  sole  powers. 
He  found  the  right  person  in  Theodosius,  one  of  his  generals,  a 
man  of  upright  character  and  great  ability,  both  as  a  general  and 

1  It  is  generally  stated,  although  not  on  very  good  authority,  that  he  was 
burned  alive  in  a  cottage  in  which  he  had  taken  refuge. 


320  THE   BARBARIAN  INVASIONS. 

as  a  statesman.  Theodosius  was  promptly  proclaimed 
A.D.  379,  Augustus,  and  received  the  government  of  the  East  as 
Jan,  19.       his  portion  (p.  314). 

Settlement  of  the  Goths.  —  The  new  Emperor  made 
Thessalonica  the  seat  of  his  government  while  engaged  in  the 
arduous  and  perplexing  task  of  restoring  order  in  his  provinces, 
and  disposing  of  his  troublesome  guests.  In  the  course  of  four 
years  he  had  accomplished  his  task.  The  Goths  received  assign- 
ments of  land,  —  the  Visigoths  in  the  provinces  south  of  the  Dan- 
ube, their  Ostrogothic  auxiliaries  in  Phrygia,  —  as  allies  {foederati) 
of  the  Empire,  upon  the  condition  of  receiving  yearly  presents, 
and  rendering  military  service  when  called  upon. 

The  Foederati.  —  The  arrangement  thus  made  with  the  Goths 
we  find  a  common  one  in  this  last  century  of  the  Empire.  They 
were  settled  within  the  limits  of  the  Empire,  and  of  course  under 
its  sovereignty,  and  yet  were  recognized  as  an  independent  nation, 
and  bound  to  the  imperial  government  by  regular  treaty  provis- 
ions, as  the  word  foederati  indicates.  It  was  an  unnatural  order 
of  things,  hard  to  reconcile  with  the  idea  of  imperial  sovereignty ; 
but  it  has  a  certain  analogy  with  the  relations  of  the  United  States 
government  to  the  Indian  tribes,  and  may  be  illustrated  by  these. 
The  Indian  tribes,  like  the  Visigoths,  are  independent  nations 
under  the  sovereignty  of  the  American  government,  with  which 
they  are  connected  by  formal  treaties ;  and,  by  the  terms  of  these 
treaties,  they  occupy  certain  tracts  of  land,  their  reservatmis. 
The  lands  occupied  by  the  Visigoths  in  Moesia  and  Dacia  were 
analogous  to  our  Indian  reservations.^ 

Character  of  Theodosius.  —  Theodosius,  fitly  called  the  Great, 
was  the  last  great  ruler  of  the  Roman  Empire.  In  the  year  392, 
by  the  death  of  Valentinian  II.,  the  whole  Empire  was  united 
under  his  rule,  and  continued  so  united  for  three  years.  Theo- 
dosius was  not  only  an  able  ruler,  but  an  upright  and  conscientious 
man.     Apart  from  his  religious  intolerance,  which  was  the  expres- 

1  We  might  carry  the  analogy  a  step  farther,  and  compare  the  dishonest 
officials  of  Valens  with  a  certain  class  of  Indian  agents. 


DIVISION   OF   THE   EMPIRE.  321 

sion  in  that  age  of  religious  earnestness,  there  is  only  one  stain 
upon  his  reputation.  A  garrison  of  Gothic  soldiers  in  Thessalonica 
had  been  massacred  by  the  mob  for  some  trivial  offence.  It  was 
not  only  an  outrage  in  itself,  but  it  embarrassed  the  Emperor 
in  his  earnest  endeavors  to  establish  peaceful  relations  with  the 
Goths.  He  fell  into  a  transport  of  fury,  and  inflicted  upon 
the  populace  of  Thessalonica  the  most  fearful  punish-  a.D.  390. 
ment,  gathering  them  into  the  circus  to  the  number  of 
seven  thousand,  and  there  having  them  massacred  by  a  detachment 
of  Gothic  soldiers.  His  good  faith  was  thus  vindicated  with  the 
Goths,  but  at  the  expense  of  justice  and  humanity.  The  great 
Ambrose,  bishop  of  Milan,  appealed  to  by  the  bishop  of  Thessa- 
lonica, exhibited  a  dignity  and  courage,  in  his  treatment  of  the 
offence,  which  have  made  this  one  of  the  significant  incidents  of 
history.  Theodosius  was  forbidden  entrance  into  the  church  until 
he  exhibited  a  genuine  repentance,  and  made  complete  sub- 
mission, his  penance  continuing  about  eight  months.  He  was 
required,  moreover,  to  renew  a  law  of  Gratian,  fixing  an  interval 
of  at  least  thirty  days  between  crime  and  punishment.^ 

Division  of  the  Empire.  —  In  the  year  395  Theodosius  died, 
leaving  the  Empire  to  his  two  young  sons,  Arcadius  in  the  East 
and  Honorius  in  the  West :  Arcadius  received  as  his  adviser  the 
crafty  and  unscrupulous  Rufinus ;  Honorius,  the  Vandal  Stihcho, 
the  most  noteworthy  personage  of  his  time.  This  division,  like 
that  between  Diocletian  and  Maximian  (p.  297),  was  in  theory 
one  of  administration  alone,  the  two  emperors  being  colleagues  with 
•  co-equal  powers.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  two  sections  of  the 
Empire  steadily  grew  apart  after  their  separation  under  the  sons 
of  Theodosius,  and  they  were  never  again  united  except  in  name. 

The  Family  of  Theodosius.  —  The  House  of  Theodosius  sat 
upon  the  imperial  thrones  of  Rome  and  Constantinople  for  two 

1  The  humbling  of  Theodosius  by  Ambrose  may  rank  with  that  of  Henry 
IV.  by  Gregory  VII.;  but  it  was  a  far  nobler  act,  inasmuch  as  Theodosius  was 
a  greater  man  than  the  penitent  of  Canossa,  and  no  element  of  self-assertion 
or  of  ecclesiastical  aggrandizement  entered  into  the  action  of  Ambrose. 


322  THE    BARBARIAN  INVASIONS. 

generations.^  The  personality  of  the  later  emperors  of  this  house 
was  wholly  insignificant.  Events,  however,  of  the  most  vital  im- 
portance occurred  in  their  reigns,  and  it  will  be  well  to  append 
their  names  in  a  synchronistic  table. 

House  of  Theodosius. 

East.  West. 

379.    Theodosius  the  Great.  392. 

395.    Arcadius.  Honorius. 

408.    Theodosius  II. 

423.    Valentinian  III. 
450.    Death  of  Theodosius  II. 

455.    Death  of  Valentinian  III. 

II.    Stilicho. 

Stilicho,  the  Vandal.  —  Theodosius,  at  his  death  in  395,  left 
the  government  of  the  Western  Empire  in  the  hands  of  Stilicho, 
as  guardian  of  the  nine-year-old  Emperor  Honorius.  This  Ger- 
man officer,  who  for  thirteen  years  was  the  foremost  character  in 
the  Empire,  was  now  in  the  prime  of  life,  and  had  earned  the 
confidence  of  his  patron  by  long  and  faithful  services.  He  had 
bitter  enemies,  who  at  last  compassed  his  downfall  and  death,  and 
their  enmity  has  left  its  mark  in  charges  of  bad  faith  in  his  public 
policy,  —  charges  which  the  meagreness  of  our  information  does  not 
allow  us  either  to  admit  or  to  disprove.  What  can  be  asserted 
without  question  is  that  his  policy  was  attended  with  entire  suc- 
cess, that  he  defeated  the  enemies  of  the  Empire  in  every  engage- 
ment, and  successfully  maintained  its  integrity ;  while  after  his 
death  disaster  followed  disaster,  and  no  general  or  statesman  was 
found  competent  to  maintain  the  authority  of  the  Empire. 

Claudian.  — The  chief  eulogist  of  Stilicho  was  the  poet  Claudian, 
a  poet  who,  in  these  late  days,  is  not  unworthy  to  be  compared 
with  those  of  the  great  period  of  Roman  literature,  for  genuine 

1  Hodgkin's  The  Dynasty  of  Theodosius  is  the  best  condensed  history  of 
this  period. 


STILICHO.  323 

poetic  sentiment  and  elegance  of  style.  His  is  the  last  great  name 
in  Roman  literature.  But  the  truest  eulogy  of  Stilicho,  and  the 
real  vindication  of  his  character,  are  found  in  the  history  of  his 
times. 

Reign  of  Honorius,  A.D.  395-423.  — The  death  of  Theodosius 
was  the  signal  for  all  elements  of  discord  to  break  into  activity. 
The  long  reign  of  Honorius  is  the  period  in  which  the  great 
barbarian  invasions  began  in  earnest,  and  the  gradual  dissolution 
of  the  Empire  commenced.  The  first  step  was  taken  by  the 
Visigoths,  who,  as  we  have  seen  (p.  320),  had  been  established 
in  the  provinces  of  the  Balkan  peninsula. 

Alaric.  —  In  the  year  of  the  death  of  Theodosius,  the  Visigoths 
of  the  Danubian  regions  elected  as  their  king  the  young  Alaric,  a 
high-spirited  and  ambitious  youth,  honorable  in  his  personal  rela- 
tions, and  not  vindictive  or  inhuman  on  the  whole,  although 
goaded  to  vengeance  by  continued  bad  faith.  For  a  number  of 
years  Alaric  and  his  Goths  traversed  the  provinces  of  the  Eastern 
Empire,  for  the  most  part  in  the  peninsula  of  Greece,  where  they 
committed  great  destruction  and  ravages.  It  is  during  this  period 
that  the  relations  between  Stilicho  and  Rufinus,  the  minister  of 
the  Eastern  Empire,  excited  suspicion  of  Stilicho's  good  faith. 
It  seems  probable,  that  in  his  dealings  with  the  perfidious  and  vin- 
dictive Rufinus,  Stilicho  showed  something  of  the  wisdom  of  the 
serpent,  and  that  his  unscrupulous  adversary  found  himself  sur- 
passed in  his  own  cunning. 

Victories  of  Stilicho.  —  After  a  number  of  years  passed  in 
devastating  Greece  and  Epirus,  Alaric  was  induced  by  Rufinus 
to  carry  his  arms  into  the  Western  Empire.  In  this  first 
invasion  of  Italy  Alaric  sustained  two  defeats  at  the  A.D.  402-3. 
hands  of  Stilicho  —  at  Pollentia  and  Verona  —  and  was 
obliged  to  depart  from  the  peninsula  and  leave  it  unmolested  for 
several  years. 

Rhadagais.  —  In    the    year   following   the    battle    of    A.D.  404, 
Verona,  a  fearful  danger  threatened  Italy  in  an  invasion 
of  Germans  under  the  Ostrogoth  Rhadagais.     This  was  not  the 


324  THE   BARBARIAN  INVASIONS. 

movement  of  a  nation,  like  that  of  the  Visigoths ;  the  Germans  of 
Rhadagais  were  soldiers  of  fortune  gathered  from  all  sources,  and 
seeking  plunder  rather  than  homes.  Rhadagais  was  a  personal 
leader,  not  a  national  king  like  Alaric.  These  invaders  too,  like 
the  Visigoths,  came  by  the  pass  of  the  Julian  Alps  at  the  head  of 
the  Adriatic,  and  swept,  two  hundred  thousand  warriors  in  number, 

through  the  northern  parts  of  the  peninsula  as  far  as 
A.D,  405.     Florence.     Here  they  were  met  by  Stilicho,  and  their 

army  was  annihilated.  Rhadagais  and  thousands  of  his 
followers  were  slain,  a  large  number  were  converted  into  serfs,  and 
some  twelve  thousand  were  taken  into  the  service  of  the  Empire 
as  soldiers. 

Vandal  Invasion.  —  The  invasion  of  Rhadagais  was 
A,D.  406.     a  passing  storm.     The  next  year  an  even  more  serious 

disaster  befell  the  Empire,  although  it  did  not  touch 
Italy  directly.  The  Vandals,  a  nation  of  the  eastern  Germans, 
who  had  been  settled  by  Constantine  in  Pannonia,  left  their 
abodes  upon  the  Danube,  and,  their  number  swollen  b}'  Sueves 
and  Alans  (these  last  of  Hunnic  stock),  crossed  the  Rhine  into 
Gaul,  which  they  occupied  for  three  years  with  fearful  destruction 
and  spoliation. 

The  Usurper  Constantine. — The  authority  of  the  Empire  was 
practically  suspended  in  these  western  provinces,  and  their  armies 
and  officials  looked  in  vain  to  the  inert  Emperor  at  Rome  for 
relief.  The  task  set  to  Stilicho  was  too  great  even  for  him. 
The  armies  of  Britain,  in  this  emergency,  did  again  what  had  been 
done  so  many  times  before,  —  threw  oif  the  authority  of  the  Em- 
peror and  set  up  an  Emperor  of  their  own,  a  common  soldier  by 
the  name  of  Constantine  —  a  name  of  good  import.^  This  pre- 
tender soon  brought  all  Britain  and  Gaul  under  his  rule,  and  main- 
tained his  authority  for  four  years.      In  this  interval  his  officers 

induced  the  Vandals  and  their  companions  to  abandon 
A.D.  409.     Gaul  and  pass  into  Spain,  where   they  took  into  their 

possession  nearly  the  whole  peninsula,  —  the  Suevi  occu- 

^  Church,  The  Count  of  tJie  Saxon  Shore. 


INVASION   OF  ALARIC.  325 

pying  the  northwest,  the  chief  body  of  the  Vandals  the  south 
(where  they  have  left  their  name  to  the  province  of  Andalusia) , 
the  Alans  and  the  rest  of  the  Vandals  in  Lusitania  {Portugal). 
Thus  the  only  region  west  of  Italy  which  still  recognized  the 
authority  of  Honorius  was  the  eastern  portion  of  Spain. 

Fall  of  Stilicho.  —  Stilicho  was  held  responsible  for  disasters 
which  no  power  could  have  averted.  His  faithful  services  to 
Theodosius  and  Honorius,  and  the  successive  defeats  of  Alaric 
and  Rhadagais  were  forgotten,  and  his  enemies  prevailed  upon 
the  weak  and  inexperienced  Emperor  —  he  was  not  much  over 
twenty  years  of  age  —  to  have  him  put  to  death.  He  was  be- 
headed at  Ravenna,  August  23,  408. 

Ravenna.  —  Ravenna  had  become  the  capital  of  the  Western 
Empire.  Rome  had,  as  we  have  seen,  long  ceased  to  be  the  resi- 
dence of  the  Emperors,  although  it  still  retained  its  prestige  and 
dignity.  Milan  was  the  military  centre  of  the  western  provinces  ; 
but  Honorius  had  neither  military  abilities  nor  ambitions.  When 
Rhadagais  was  laying  waste  the  north  of  Italy,  Milan  was  an 
unsafe  refuge  for  his  sacred  person,  and  he  sought  a  secure  re- 
treat in  the  city  of  Ravenna,  which  was  protected  from  assault  by 
the  marshes  of  the  Adriatic.  This  city  continued  for  four  hundred 
years  from  this  time  to  be  the  seat  of  government,  and  still  con- 
tains splendid  remains  of  architecture  dating  from  this  period. 

III.    Alaric. 

Second  Invasion  of  Alaric. — The  death  of  Stilicho  was  fol- 
lowed by  cruel  vengeance  inflicted  upon  his  adherents  by  his 
victorious  enemies,  and  the  massacre  of  the  wives  and  children  of 
the  German  soldiers  in  Italy.  It  was  in  a  sense  the  revival  of  the 
sentiment  of  Italian  nationality,  in  opposition  to  the  impending 
domination  of  the  German.  These  atrocious  acts  summoned 
Alaric  a  second  time  to  Italy ;  and  this  time  there  was  no  Stilicho 
to  meet  him.  He  traversed  the  peninsula  without  opposi- 
tion, and  stood  at  length  before  the  walls  of  Rome,  —     A,D.  408. 


326  THE  BARBARIAN  INVASIONS. 

the  first  enemy  since  Hannibal  who  had  looked  upon  them  at 
the  head  of  a  hostile  army. 

Capture  of  Rome.  —  It  was  not  Alaric's  purpose  to  destroy  or 
injure  the  world's  capital.  He  invested  it  closely  and  reduced  it 
by  famine,  after  the  Senate,  in  its  frenzied  hatred  of  the  barba- 
rians, had  condemned  to  death  Stilicho's  widow,  Serena,  on  the 
suspicion  that  she  had  invited  the  Goths  in  revenge  for  the  death 
of  her  husband.  When  famine  and  pestilence  had  brought  the 
citizens  to  submission,  an  embassy  was  sent  to  the  conqueror  to 
ask  for  terms  on  which  they  might  surrender.  The  demand  was 
for  all  their  gold  and  silver,  their  movable  property,  and  their 
slaves  of  barbarian  origin.  "What,  then,  do  you  leave  to  us?" 
was  asked,  and  the  answer,  "Your  lives."  But  the  conqueror  was 
after  all  satisfied  with  easier  terms,  and  retired  from  Italy  with 
immense  treasures,  the  price  of  the  city.^ 

Sack  of  Rome.  —  Twice  again  Alaric  besieged  Rome. 
A.D.  409.  The  first  time  it  surrendered  voluntarily,  the  second 
A.D.  410.  time  he  took  it  by  assault,  and  gave  it  up  to  plunder  for 
three  days.  His  patience  was  exhausted,  and  his  sol- 
diers had  been  too  often  disappointed  of  their  prey.  Much  de- 
struction and  many  outrages  were  no  doubt  wrought  during  these 
three  days  of  rapine  ;  but  it  is  not  probable  that  the  city  suffered 
nearly  so  much  as  from  Geiseric,  the  Vandal,  forty-five  years  later, 
or  from  the  imperial  troops  of  Bourbon's  army  in  1529.  Alaric 
was  of  a  finer  and  nobler  nature  than  either  of  these. 

Death  of  Alaric.  —  From  the  sack  of  Rome  Alaric  proceeded 
with  his  Goths  to  southern  Italy,  and  there  suddenly  died  in  the 
same  year,  410.  His  body  received  a  unique  and  characteristic 
burial.  The  course  of  the  river  Busento  was  turned  aside,  the 
young  chief  was  interred  in  its  bed,  and  then  the  waters  were 
suffered  to  flow  back  into  their  channel,  so  that  his  sepulchre 
might  remain  forever  concealed. 

Ataulf .  —  The  successor  of  Alaric  was  his  brother-in-law  Ataulf 
{Adolf),  a  prince  of  mild  temper  and  enlightened  mind,  whose 
^  Wilkie  Collins'  Antonina  ;  or  the  Fall  of  Ro?ne . 


ATAULF  AND  PLACIDIA.  327 

desire  it  was  to  bring  his  Goths  into  the  current  of  civiUzation, 
and  create  a  new  race  of  men  by  uniting  them  with  the  citizens  of 
the  Empire  —  the  result  that  has  actually  been  wrought  by  the 
slow  forces  of  time.^  Ataulf  departed  from  the  policy  of  his 
brother-in-law,  entered  into  negotiations  with  the  court  of  Ra- 
venna, and,  in  412,  led  his  people  from  Italy  into  Gaul,  where  the 
power  of  the  usurper  Constantine  (p.  324)  had  just  been  over- 
thrown. 

Galla  Placidia.  — The  story  of  Ataulf 's  short  career  is  at  once 
romantic  and  pathetic.  The  Goths  had  taken  prisoner  Placidia, 
the  sister  of  the  Emperor,  and  had  refused  to  give  her  up,  al- 
though they  treated  her  kindly  and  honorably.  The  Gothic 
prince  and  the  Roman  princess,  both  noble  by  birth  and  of  noble 
character,  young,  and  of  great  personal  beauty,  became  strongly 
attached  to  each  other;  but  their  marriage  was  forbidden  by 
Honorius,  and  Placidia's  hand  was  also  sought  by  Constantius, 
the  officer  who  had  put  an  end  to  Constantine 's  usurped  power, 
a  favorite  of  Honorius,  but  a  personal  enemy  of  Ataulf. 
After  long  waiting,  the  lovers  were  united  at  Narbonne,  A.D.  414. 
in  spite  of  the  Emperor's  opposition  ;  but  their  happiness 
was  of  short  duration.  Forced  the  next  year  by  Con-  A.D.  415. 
stantius  to  withdraw  into  Spain,  Ataulf  was  murdered  at 
Barcelona.  Placidia  then  returned  to  her  brother's  court,  where 
she  was  at  last  obliged  to  marry  her  husband's  enemy,  Constantius, 
by  whom  she  became  the  mother  of  the  wretched  Valentinian  III., 
the  last  of  the  family  of  Theodosius. 

1  The  words  of  Ataulf  were  :  "  It  was  at  first  my  wish  to  destroy  the  Roman 
name,  and  erect  in  its  place  a  Gothic  empire,  taking  to  myself  the  place  and 
the  powers  of  Caesar  Augustus.  But  when  experience  taught  me  that  the 
untamable  barbarism  of  the  Goths  would  not  suffer  them  to  live  beneath  the 
sway  of  law,  and  that  the  abolition  of  the  institutions  on  which  the  state  rested 
would  involve  the  ruin  of  the  state  itself,  I  chose  the  glory  of  renewing  and 
maintaining  by  Gothic  strength  the  fame  of  Rome,  desiring  to  go  down  to 
posterity  as  the  restorer  of  that  Roman  power  which  it  was  beyond  my  power 
to  replace.  Wherefore  I  avoid  war  and  strive  for  peace  "  (in  Orosius;  trans- 
lated by  Bryce). 


328  THE   BARBARIAN  INVASIONS. 

King^dom  of  the  Visigoths.  —  After  a  brief  inter\'al  Wallia, 
brother  of  Ataiilf,  was  made  king  of  the  Visigoths.  He  led  his 
nation  back  to  Gaul,  and  received  from  the  Emperor  in  the  year 
419  a  formal  grant  of  territory  upon  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  with  Tou- 
louse as  his  capital.  By  this  act  the  Visigoths  were  established,  as 
allies  {foederati)  (p.  320)  of  Rome,  upon  lands  of  their  own.  But 
these  were  not  vacant  lands,  as  those  in  Thrace  had  been,  but 
were  occupied  by  a  numerous  and  wealthy  people,  over  whom  the 
king  of  the  Visigoths  exercised  the  authority  of  a  Roman  magis- 
trate. Thus  was  established  the  first  Germanic  kingdom  upon  the 
soil  of  the  Empire,  soon  to  be  followed  by  others  ;  and  with  this  act 

began  that  union  of  Roman  and  barbarian  which  had 
A,D.  419,     been  the  hope  of  Ataulf.     Wallia  died  in  the  same  year, 

and  was  succeeded  by  Theodoric,  a  grandson  of  Alaric. 
St.  Jerome.  —  The  age  of  Alaric  and  Ataulf  was  made  illustri- 
ous by  the  genius  and  literary  activity  of  two  distinguished  fathers 

of  the  Church,  one  of  them  among  the  greatest  men  of 
A.D,420.     all  time,  —  Jerome   and  Augustine.     Jerome   had  been 

educated  in  Rome,  but  had  now  lived  for  many  years  in 
Bethlehem  of  Jud3ea,  where  the  news  of  the  fall  of  Rome  reached 
him  and  filled  him  with  dismay  and  sorrow.  He  is  best  known 
as  the  author  of  the  Vulgate,  a  Latin  version  of  the  Scriptures, 
which  he  translated  from  the  Greek. 

St.  Augustine.  —  Augustine  was  an  African  by  birth  and  resi- 
dence. He  had  lived  a  wild  life  in  his  youth,  but  had  been  con- 
verted by  Ambrose,  and  became  a  zealous  and  earnest  Christian, 
devoting  his  great  intellectual  powers  to  the  service  of  the  Church. 
He  was  bishop  of  Hippo,  where  he  died  in  430.  He,  too,  like 
Jerome,  was  powerfully  impressed  by  the  capture  and  sack  of 
Rome,  and  was  led  by  this  event  to  the  composition  of  his  greatest 
work.  The  City  of  God  {De  Civitate  Dei),  the  object  of  which  is 
to  show  that  the  calamities  of  the  Empire  were  not  to  be  attributed 
to  the  change  of  religion ;  and  that,  though  the  city  builded  by 
men  may  perish,  the  city  of  God  will  abide  forever.  St.  Augustine, 
in  conjunction  with  Athanasius,  was  the  founder  of  the  great  theolog- 
ical system  which  has  held  possession  of  the  Church  since  his  day. 


REIGN   OF    VALENTIN  I  AN  III.  329 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

AETIUS. 

The  Age  of  Valentinian  III.  —  Even  in  these  days  of  degeneracy 
and  dissolution,  the  Roman  Empire  and  nationahty  did  not  cease 
to  produce  characters  worthy  of  their  best  days ;  and  in  the  reign 
of  the  good-for-nothing  Valentinian  III.  there  flourished  two  gen- 
erals and  statesmen  of  a  high  order,  Aetius  and  Boniface.  Un- 
fortunately they  were  rivals.  Each  was  by  nature  upright  and 
loyal,  and  by  himself  would  have  done  the  Empire  good  service. 
But  their  rivalry  and  the  unbalanced  ambition  of  Aetius  led  both 
into  treasonable  conduct,  which  brought  great  calamities  upon  the 
Empire. 

Count  ^  Boniface.  —  Boniface  was  governor  of  Africa,  that  prov- 
ince which  stood  nearest  to  Italy,  both  in  situation  and  importance  ; 
for  here  were  the  choice  plantations  of  the  Roman  nobles,  and 
from  here  came  the  most  abundant  supplies  of  grain  for  the  capi- 
tal. He  was  pecuHarly  favored  and  trusted  by  the  Empress 
Placidia,  who  governed  in  the  name  of  her  son,  Valentinian.  This 
favor  awakened  the  jealousy  of  Aetius,  who  occupied  a  position 
of  trust  in  Italy,  corresponding  to  that  of  Boniface  in  Africa,  but 
who  seems  to  have  aspired  to  make  himself  to  the  present  sov- 
ereign what  Stilicho  had  been  to  Honorius,  the  supreme  manager 
of  affairs.  In  this  he  was  successful,  but  only  by  base  intrigue  and 
perfidy,  and  to  meet  at  the  end  a  fate  like  that  of  Stilicho. 

The  Vandals  in  Africa.  —  Aetius  succeeded,  by  false 
representations,  in  exciting  Placidia  and  Boniface  to  sus-    A.D.  426. 
picion  and  jealousy  towards  one  another,  even  to  the 

1  In  the  later  Empire  we  meet  with  the  term  Codics  (companion)  as  an 
official  title,  which  may  be  rendered  by  the  modern  word  "  count,"  derived 
from  it. 


330  AETIUS. 

degree  that  Boniface  was  made  to  fear  for  his  Hfe ;  for  under 
despotic  rule  there  is  only  one  step  from  suspicion  to  punishment. 
In  his  fear  and  resentment  Boniface  was  tempted  to  commit  a 
crime,  less  to  be  condemned  morally  than  that  of  Aetius,  but 
attended  with  the  most  disastrous  consequences.  He  invited  the 
Vandals  of  southern  Spain  to  bring  their  forces  to  his  aid,  promis- 
ing them  as  reward  a  tract  of  land  in  Africa.  Hardly  had  he 
taken  this  treasonable  step  than  he  was  made  aware  of  the  perfidy 
of  Aetius  and  the  true  sentiment  of  Placidia.  But  it  was 
A.D.  429.    too  late.     The  Vandals  were  already  on  their  way. 

Geiseric.  —  The  Vandal  king,  Geiseric,^  was  a  man  of 
mark,  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  among  the  German  leaders 
of  this  century.  He  was  not  attractive  and  imposing  in  aspect, 
like  Alaric  and  Ataulf,  but  of  small  stature  and  limping ;  neither 
had  he  their  magnanimity  and  fineness  of  nature.  He  was  shrewd 
and  designing,  and  at  the  same  time  blood-thirsty  and  relentless. 
Boniface  tried  in  his  remorse  to  drive  back  his  dangerous  allies, 
but  Geiseric  carried  everything  before  him  ;  and  Boniface  was 
forced  to  return  in  discomfiture  to  Italy,  where,  the  next 
A.D,  432.     year,  he  lost  his  life  in  a  civil  war  with  Aetius. 

Aetius  in  Gaul.  —  Aetius  was  now,  as  he  had  aspired 
to  be,  in  possession  of  undivided  authority  ;  and  the  services  which 
from  this  time  he  rendered  to  the  Empire  are  almost  sufficient  to 
wipe  out  the  memory  of  his  great  crime.  The  scene  of  his  activity 
during  the  twenty  years  which  followed  was  chiefly  Gaul,  where 
the  clouds  were  gathering  fast  over  society.  As  long  as  Aetius 
lived,  these  perils  were  held  in  check,  and  the  integrity  of  the 
Empire  was  maintained.  As  soon  as  his  strong  hand  was  removed, 
the  Empire  moved  rapidly,  and  without  hindrance,  to  its  fall. 

The  Situation  in  Gaul.  —  By  the  withdrawal  of  the  Vandals  into 
Africa,  Spain  had  been  restored  to  the  authority  of  the  Empire, 
except  for  the  occupation  of  the  northwest  of  the  peninsula  by 
the  Sueves.  The  Visigoths  in  southwestern  Gaul  were  allies  of 
the  Empire,  and  nominally  under  its  authority ;  and  the  vigorous 

^  This  is  the  correct  furm  uf  the  name  instead  of  the  famiUar  Genseric. 


AETIUS. 


331 


AETIUS. 


332  AETIUS. 

rule  of  Aetius  maintained  this  authority  sufficiently  well.  Along  the 
Rhine  the  Alaniannians  and  Franks  were  quietly  pushing  their  way 
into  the  fields  of  Gaul,  and  between  them  a  new  nation  had  now 
thrust  itself. 

The  Burgundians. — The  Burgundians  had  made  their  appear- 
ance in  western  Germany  in  the  century  before,  having  moved 
thither  from  their  old  homes  upon  the  Oder.     In  the  disturbed 
reign  of  Honorius  they  had  got  a  foothold  upon  the 
A.D.  413.    Rhine,  making  the  city  of  Worms  their  capital,  where 
their  memory  was  long  preserved,  although  it  was  their 
A.D.  435.    residence  for  only  thirty  years.^    These  people  now  began, 
like  their  neighbors,  the  Franks  and  iVlamannians,  but 
more  turbulently  and  rapidly,  to  push  further  to  the  West;  but 
they  were  defeated  by  x'\etius,  and  transplanted  by  him 
A.D.  443.    to  the  high  mountain  region  of  Savoy,  where  they  occu- 
pied a  position  similar  to  that  of  the  Visigoths  in  Aqui- 
tania.      These  two  nations,  after  the  death  of  Aetius,  gradually 
spread  out  from  their  lawful  territories,  and  between  them  gained 
possession  of  nearly  the  whole  of  southern  Gaul. 

Attila,  the  Hun.  —  A  new  peril,  the  most  menacing  of  all,  now 
approached  from  the  East.  The  Huns  had  remained  in  quiet 
occupation  of  the  territories  north  of  the  Danube  since  their  great 
migration  of  the  century  before  (p.  318).  From  this  seat  of 
empire  they  had  extended  their  authority  as  far  as  the  Rhine, 
making  tributary  to  themselves  all  the  nations  of  free  Germany,  — 
the  Ostrogoths,  the  Gepidae,  the  Franks  of  the  right  bank  of  the 
Rhine,  and  other  nations.  Their  king,  Attila,  was  superior  to  his 
race  in  culture  and  humanity  ;  but  he  was  a  Tartar,  a  man  belong- 
ing to  the  class  of  Genghis  Khan  and  Tamerlane,  even  if  less  savage 
than  they.^ 

1  The  great  German  epic,  the  Alebelungenlied,  has  its  scene  at  Worms  in 
the  time  of  the  Burgundian  rule. 

2  He  appears  under  the  name  of  Etzel  in  the  NiebelungenUcd,  and  is 
depicted  as  a  humane  and  noble  character,  far  nobler  indeed  than  the  Bur- 
gundian heroes  of  the  poem. 


INVASION  OF  ATTILA.  333 

Attila's  Invasion.  —  Attila,  master  of  all  Europe  north  of  the 
Danube  and  east  of  the  Rhine,  now  conceived  the  mighty  ambi- 
tion of  bringing  the  rest  of  Europe  into  subjection.  In  this  plan 
he  seems  to  have  been  secretly  encouraged  by  the  crafty  Geiseric. 
Gathering  the  forces  of  all  the  nations  which  were  subject  to  him, 
he  crossed  the  Rhine  with  an  army  of  at  least  five  hundred  thou- 
sand men,  and  made  his  way  across  Gaul  as  far  as  the  river  Loire, 
plundering  and  destroying  as  he  went.  He  then  laid  siege  to  the 
city  of  Orleans;  and  his  battering  rams  were  already  crashing 
against  its  walls,  —  according  to  some  accounts  his  warriors  had 
even  entered  the  streets  of  the  city,  —  when  Aetius,  with  Theodoric, 
king  of  the  Visigoths,  appeared  at  the  head  of  a  great  army,  and 
the  city  was  saved. 

''Battle  of  the  Peoples."  —  For  some  reason,  unknown  to  us, 
Attila,  in  spite  of  the  superiority  of  his  forces,  found  himself  obhged 
to  retreat,  and  hastened  towards  the  Rhine,  pursued  by  Aetius  and 
Theodoric.  He  was  overtaken  in  his  retreat,  and  brought  to 
bay  at  a  spot  upon  the  river  Seine,  not  far  from  the  modern  city 
of  Troyes,  about  fifty  miles  south  of  Chalons.^  The  Roman  gen- 
eral had  under  his  standard  all  the  forces  of  the  Empire.  Besides 
his  legions,  there  were  contingents  from  the  allied  Visigoths  and 
Burgundians,  as  well  as  from  the  Alamannians  and  Salian  Franks 
upon  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  who  held  their  lands  on  the  tenure 
of  military  service.  All  the  nations  of  Europe  were  assembled 
on  this  great  batde-field,  —  Roman  against  Hun,  Visigoth  against 
Ostrogoth,  and  Salian  Frank  against  Ripuarian  Frank.  The  battle 
is  fitly  called  the  "  Battle  of  the  Nations." 

Defeat  of  Attila.  —  Aetius  had  skilfully  taken  possession  of  a 
ridge  of  ground,  which  the  Huns  vainly  endeavored  to  storm ; 
their  horsemen,  armed  with  bow  and  arrow,  were  ill-suited  to  this 
task.  As  Theodoric,  king  of  the  Visigoths,  was  rallying  his  men, 
he  was  pierced  by  a  Hunnic  spear.     At  this  his  people,  excited  to 

1  The  engagement,  called  by  contemporary  writers  "  Battle  of  the  Mauriac 
Plain,"  is  usually  known  as  the  battle  of  Chdlons  sur  Marne.  But  it  is  now 
generally  admitted  to  have  been  fought  at  Mery  upon  the  Seine. 


334  A  E  77  US. 

fury  rather  than  discouraged  by  his  loss,  rushed  upon  the  enemy 
with  irresistible  force,  and  carried  all  before  them.  In  the  night 
which  followed  Attila  retreated,  leaving  the  victory  to  Aetius.  In 
this  fight  it  is  said  that  a  hundred  and  sixty-five  thousand  people 
fell.     This  great  battle  was  fought  in  the  summer  of  451. 

Results  of  the  Battle.  —The  "Battle  of  the  Peoples  "  is  with 
good  reason  reckoned  one  of  the  decisive  battles  of  the  world's 
history.  The  Huns  were  not,  like  the  Goths,  the  Franks,  or  the 
Vandals,  a  people  of  cognate  race  with  the  Romans  and  readily 
amenable  to  civilization ;  their  aim  was  not  to  carve  out  for  them- 
selves a  domain  from  the  superabundant  lands  of  the  Empire, 
but  to  overthrow  the  very  structure  of  the  Empire,  and  destroy 
the  fabric  of  Roman  civilization  and  religion.  The  Empire  did 
not  long  survive  this  victory,  but  when  it  fell  it  left  its  civilization 
as  an  inheritance  to  those  who  succeeded  to  its  power.  We  can- 
not say  that  the  Huns  would  not  in  time  have  developed  the  same 
high  political  aptitudes  as  their  kinsmen  the  Magyars,  but  it  is  not 
likely.  The  times  were  different  in  the  two  cases.  The  Magyars 
fitted  themselves  into  the  scheme  of  an  advancing  civilization  and 
a  newly  developed  organization  of  society.  In  the  time  of  Attila 
society  was  decaying,  and  the  political  structure  just  ready  to  fall. 
His  triumph,  and  the  overthrow  of  the  Empire,  would  have  led  to 
a  dominion  like  that  of  Genghis  Khan,  the  enemy  of  humanity  and 

of  society  itself. 
A.D.  452.  Invasion  of  Italy.  —  The  year  after  this  repulse, 
Attila  advanced  again  upon  the  Empire,  this  time  mak- 
ing his  way  into  Italy  by  the  old  open  route  of  the  Julian  Alps. 
The  city  of  Aquileia,  at  the  head  of  the  Adriatic  Sea,  was  taken 
and  destroyed.  The  Venetian  plains  were  laid  waste,  and  a  rem- 
nant of  their  inhabitants,  seeking  a  refuge  from  the  destroyer 
among  the  lagoons  and  marshy  islands  of  the  seashore,  carried 
with  them  their  national  name.  The  scattered  huts  of  these  fugi- 
tives have  grown  into  the  stately  palaces  of  Venice. 

Death  of  Attila.  —  Advancing  through  the  plains  of  northern 
Italy,  Attila  took  up  his  residence  at  Milan,  the  military  capital  of 


DEATHS   OF  ATTILA   AND  AETWS.  11^ 

the  Western  Empire.  What  were  his  plans,  and  in  what  manner 
Aetius  proposed  to  meet  them,  cannot  now  be  known.  All  we 
know  is  that  Attila  was  here  visited  by  an  embassy  from  the  Em- 
peror, headed  by  Leo  the  Great,  bishop  of  Rome,  one  of  the  most 
noteworthy  men  of  his  time,  the  one  who  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  temporal  power  of  the  popes.  At  his  entreaties  Attila  con- 
sented to  give  up  his  schemes  of  conquest  and  return  to 
his  home  beyond  the  Danube.  The  next  year  he  sud-  A.D.  453. 
denly  died,  and  his  immense  empire  crumbled  to  pieces. 
The  Ostrogoths  took  possession  of  Pannonia,  the  Gepidae  of  Da- 
cia  further  east,  while  the  more  distant  German  tribes  were  left  to 
their  isolation  and  independence. 

The  Anglo-Saxons  in  Britain.  —  During  these  events  Britain, 
too,  began  to  be  occupied  by  German  tribes.    This  island  had  been 
practically  severed  from  the  Empire  from  the  time  of  the 
usurper  Constantine  (p.  324) .    He  had  carried  the  Roman     A.D.  407. 
troops  with  him  to  Gaul,  leaving  Britain  defenceless ; 
and  after  his  fall  there  had  been  no  disposition  or  opportunity 
to  reoccupy  the  island.     But  the  native  Britons  had,  under  the 
long  Roman  rule,  lost  all  habit  and  capacity  of  self-government 
or  self-defence.     Harassed  by  their  unruly  neighbors  at  the  north, 
the  Scots  and  Picts,  abandoned  by  their  Roman  protec- 
tors, they,  as  Boniface  had  done  (p.  329),  called  in  the     A.D.  449. 
aid  of  auxiliaries  from  northern  Germany,  only  to  find 
at  last  that  they  had  set  a  new  master  over  themselves.     For  over 
a  hundred  years  Angles  and  Saxons  in  successive  companies  flocked 
across  the  sea  to  Britain,  and  a  new  Germanic  realm  was  estab- 
lished on  its  soil. 

Death  of  Aetius.  —  As  Stilicho's  prestige  had  been  destroyed 
by  the  disasters  in  Gaul  (p.  325),  so  Attila's  successes  in  Italy 
appear  to  have  weakened  the  hold  of  Aetius  upon  the 
confidence  of  the  Emperor.  The  year  after  Attila's  A.D.  454. 
death  Valentinian  procured  J:he  assassination  of  his  great 
general,  and  was  himself  assassinated  the  following  year  by  the 
senator  Maximus,  whom  he  had  grossly  injured,  and  who  now  suc- 
ceeded him  upon  the  imperial  throne. 


336  THE   KILL    OF  TILE  EMPIRE. 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

THE   FALL  OF  THE   E^^TRE. 

The  Imperial  System.  —  Aetius  has  been  called  ''  the  last  of 
the  Romans  "  :  as  long  as  he  lived  the  authority  of  the  Empire 
was  maintained  successfully  against  the  assaults  of  the  barbarians  ; 
after  his  death  it  soon  succumbed  to  their  blows.  The  establish- 
ment of  the  imperial  government  had  given  new  strength  to  the 
Roman  state  in  two  ways ;  by  knitting  together  its  incoherent 
forces  in  a  more  efficient  organism,^  and  by  putting  an  end  to  the 
atrocious  misgovernment  of  the  provinces.  The  early  emperors 
were  tyrants  towards  the  haughty  Roman  nobility,  but  to  the  pro- 
vincials they  gave  some  degree  of  peace  and  justice  ;  while  in  the 
system  of  municipalities  and  that  of  provincial  assemblies  they 
possessed  healthy  institutions  of  local  self-government. 

Its  Collapse.  —  But  these  forces  were  now  exhausted.  The 
unjust  discrimination  between  Rome  and  the  provinces  had,  it  is 
true,  been  effaced  (p.  280),  and  the  reorganization  by  Diocletian 
and  Constantine  (p.  296)  had  still  further  centralized  the  govern- 
ment. But  all  internal  life  had  perished.  \\'ealth  and  population 
were  every  day  diminishing  ;  the  enemies  of  the  Empire  were 
every  day  stronger  and  more  audacious ;  the  imperial  court  was 
every  day  more  luxurious  and  more  unscrupulous ;  the  people 
were  every  day  more  incapable  of  meeting  the  demands  made 
upon  them  by  the  government.  Society  could  barely  maintain 
its  own  existence ;  it  had  no  surplus  to  hand  down  to  posterity  — 
taxation  devoured  all  the  fruits  of  industry.  The  municipal  system 
was  made  an  agency  of  taxation,  and  local  self-government  ceased 
to  exist  except  in  name.     The  peasants  had  become  serfs,  and  the 

1  See,  upon  this  point,  the  first  of  Seeley's  lectures  upon  Roman  Iinperialisni. 


CAPTURE    OF  ROME  BY  GEISERIC,  337 

city  population  paupers.  Even  Christianity  had  no  power  against 
these  principles  of  decay,  and,  benumbed  by  contact  with  a  cor- 
rupt court,  lost  much  of  its  tonic  power.  All  capacity  of  progress 
being  absent,  society  by  necessity  went  backward  ;  and  there 
followed  a  complete  collapse  of  civilization  and  social  order. 

Succession  of  Emperors.  —  During  the  years  which  followed  a 
rapid  succession  of  Emperors  reigned  in  the  West  with  only  nominal 
power;  their  names  may  be  best  presented  in  tabular  form. 

East.  West. 

450.    Marcian. 


457.    Leo  I. 


455- 

Maximus. 

Avitus,  deposed  456. 

457. 

Majorian. 

461. 

Lybius  Severus,  d.  465. 

467. 

Anthemius. 

472. 

Olybrius. 

JuHus  Nepos. 

473- 

[Glycerins,  pretender.] 

475- 

Romulus  Augustulus. 

476. 

Deposed  by  Odovacar. 

474.    Zeno. 


Majorian.  —  Of  all  these  Emperors  of  the  West  Majorian  was 
the  only  one  worthy  of  his  dignity  and  rank.  He  vigorously  main- 
tained the  authority  of  the  Empire,  especially  against  the  Vandals, 
who  were  at  this  time  its  most  formidable  enemies.  Those  who 
succeeded  him  were  mere  shadows. 

Geiseric  in  Rome.  — The  senator  Maximus,  who  slew 
Valentinian  III.  and  succeeded  to  the  throne,  laid  claim  a.D.  455. 
to  the  widow  as  well  as  the  crown  of  his  predecessor. 
Averse  to  the  proposed  marriage,  Eudoxia  called  to  her  aid  the 
powerful  king  of  the  Vandals,  Geiseric,  who  promptly  sailed  from 
Africa  with  a  strong  force,  and  took  possession  of  Rome.  As 
he  approached  the  city,  he  was  met,  as  Attila  had  been  on  his 


338  THE  FALL    OF   THE   EMPIRE. 

approach  to  Milan,  by  the  venerable  bishop  Leo,  whose  inter- 
cession availed  now  with  the  Vandal  as  it  had  with  the  Hun.  He 
consented  to  spare  the  city  and  the  lives  and  persons  of  the 
inhabitants,  but  demanded  their  treasures.  He  committed  there- 
fore no  wanton  destruction ;  no  sack,  in  the  true  meaning  of  the 
word,  was  allowed ;  but  the  city  was  thoroughly  plundered,  and 
an  enormous  amount  of  wealth  was  carried  away. 

Empire  of  the  Vandals.  —  The  capture  of  the  eternal  city 
placed  Geiseric  upon  the  summit  of  renown,  and  his  restless 
ambition  incited  him  to  new  plans  of  conquest.  The  sentiment  of 
patriotism  was  not  yet  extinct  among  the  Romans,  and  for  a  short 

time  they  aroused  themselves  to  oppose  him.  The  year 
A.D.  456.    after  his  occupation  of  Rome  he  was  defeated  by  Count 

Ricimer  in  a  naval  battle  near  Corsica,  and  the  heroic 
A.D.  461.    Majorian,  who  now  succeeded  to  the  throne,  held  the 

Vandals  at  bay  until  his  abdication  and  death.  After 
this,  Geiseric  found  no  worthy  opponent,  and  he  speedily  made 
himself  master  of  Sardinia,  Corsica,  the  Balearic  Isles,  and  part 
of  Sicily.     He  now  ruled  with  undisputed  sway  over  the  western 

Mediterranean ;  but  the  greatness  of  the  Vandal  empire 
A.D.  477.    ended  with  the  death  of  its  great  king. 

Count  Ricimer.  —  In  these  years  the  management  of 
affairs  at  Rome  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  Goth  named 
Ricimer,  a  grandson  of  Wallia.  This  German,  perhaps  equal  to 
Stilicho  in  ability,  but  far  less  disinterested,  wielded  for  seventeen 

years  an  even  more  absolute  authority,  setting  up  and 
A.D,  457.    deposing  emperors  at  his  will.     Majorian  was  the  first 

who  owed  his  crown  to  him  ;  but  when  it  appeared  that 
the  emperor  of  his  creation  would  not  be  a  puppet  in  his  hands, 

Ricimer  forced  him  to  abdicate,  and  soon  afterwards 
A.D.  461.    caused  his  death.     Ricimer's  domination  lasted  until  his 

own  death,  eleven  years  later,  after  which  the  Empire 
rapidly  fell  to  pieces.  Selfish  and  unscrupulous  as  he  was,  Ricimer 
at  least  preserved  it  for  a  time  from  dissolution. 

Disintegration  of  the  Empire.  —  The  fate  which  had  so  many 


EURIC.  339 

times  seemed  impending  over  the  Empire  was  now  rapidly  ap- 
proaching.    All  central  authority  was  lost,  and  the  various  prov- 
inces were  becoming  the  seat  of  new  kingdoms  of  German  origin, 
independent  in  substance  of  power,  although  still  nominally  a  part 
of  the  Empire.^     The  Vandals  possessed  Africa  and  the  islands. 
The  Burgundians  had  gradually  advanced  their  boundaries,  until 
now  they  occupied  from  the  Alps  to  the  Rhone,  making  Lugdu- 
num  {Lyons)  their  capital.     Here,  at  the  Rhone,  their  territories 
touched  those  of  the  Visigoths,  who  had  on  their  part  stretched 
out  their  hands  from  Toulouse  to  meet  those  of  the  Burgundians 
extended  from  the  High  Alps.      The  growth  of   the   Visigothic 
empire  was  the  work  of  King  Euric,  who  came  to  the 
throne  shortly  after  the  death  of  Ricimer,  and  reigned    A.D.  466. 
for  nineteen  years.     Euric  carried  his  boundaries  north 
to  the  Loire  and  east  to  the  Rhone  ;  then  crossed  the    A.D.  475. 
Pyrenees  and  reduced  under  his  sway  all  Spain,  except    A.D.  478. 
the  Suevic  state  in  the  northwest;    lastly  he  obtained 
from  Odovacar  the  coast  between  the  Rhone  and  the    A.D.  480. 
Alps,  —  the  modern  Provence,  with  Arelate  {Aries)   as 
its  capital.     The  kingdom  of  the  Visigoths,  stretching  from  the 
Loire,  the  Rhone,  and  the  Alps  to  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  seemed 
now  destined  to  dispute  with  that  of  the  Vandals  the  dominion 
of  the  West. 

The  North  of  GauL  —  Thus  the  whole  Western  Empire  had 
fallen  under  the  dominion  of  Germanic  nations — Vandals,  Sueves, 
Visigoths,  Burgundians  —  except  Italy  itself  and  the  northern  por- 
tion of  Gaul.  Even  here  the  Alamannians  on  the  east  and  the 
Franks  on  the  north  had  made  themselves  masters  of  a  broad  belt 
of  territory ;  while  at  the  West,  in  the  modern  Brittany,  the  Ar- 
moricans  maintained  a  virtual  independence.  But  in  the  great 
central  region  of  northern  Gaul,  with  Paris  as  his  capital, 
the  standard  of  the  Empire  was  still  ably  defended  by  A.D.  464. 
Count  ^gidius,  and  after  his  death  by  his  son  Syagrius. 

1  For  a  vivid  picture  of  these  movements,  read  Dahn's  Felicitas. 


340  THE  FALL    OF  THE  EMPIRE. 

The  Franks.  —  A  new  Germanic  power  was  now  gathering  in 
this  quarter.  The  SaUan  Franks,  who  inhabited  the  Netherlands 
under  the  authority  of  the  Empire,  consisted  of  a  multitude  of 
petty  kingdoms  gathered  into  a  loose  confederation  like  that  of  the 
Alamannians.  The  kingdom  of  Tournay,  under  the  rule  of  the 
Merovingian  ^  Childeric,  had  established  a  certain  ascendency  over 
the  rest  of  the  Salian  Franks,  an  ascendency  which,  at  his 
A.D.  481.  death,  passed  to  his  son  Clovis,^  a  youth  of  sixteen.  The 
disappearance  of  the  imperial  authority  at  this  epoch  left 
the  king  of  Tournay,  like  the  kings  of  Toulouse  and  of  Lyons,  in  a 
condition  of  virtual  independence  ;  there  was  no  longer  any  Emperor 
for  them  to  obey,^  and  they  reigned  with  no  superior.  As  Euric 
had  pushed  his  boundaries  to  the  Loire  and  the  Alps,  and  the  Bur- 
gundian  kings  had  advanced  theirs  to  the  Rhone,  so  Clovis  now 
began  to  do  the  same  thing,  and  entered  upon  that  succession  of 
conquests  which  built  up  the  greatest  and  most  enduring  of  the 
Germanic  kingdoms.  He  had  hardly  been  upon  the  throne  five 
years  when,  by  the  defeat  and  overthrow  of  Syagrius,  a.d.  486,  he 
put  an  end  to  the  last  remains  of  Roman  power  in  Gaul.  The 
career  of  Clovis,  the  most  illustrious  of  the  Germanic  kings,  and 
the  fortunes  of  his  empire,  the  most  enduring  of  all  the  Germanic 
kingdoms,  do  not  fall  within  the  limits  of  this  work. 

Fall  of  the  Empire.  —  Before  Syagrius  fell,  or  Euric  had  con- 
quered Spain,  the  Empire  of  the  West  had  already  ceased 
A.D.  472.    to  exist.    After  the  death  of  Ricimer  the  series  of  puppet 
emperors  continued  four  years  longer.     Romulus,  nick- 
named Augustulus  (the  little  Augustus),  the  last  of  the  shadowy 
line,  was  a  handsome  and  amiable  youth,  but  with  neither  expe- 

1  This  name  is  a  patronymic,  meaning  the  descendants  of  Meroveus,  grand- 
father of  Clovis. 

2  His  name  appears  to  have  been  Hlodowig  {^Ltidivig  or  Leivis) ;  the  same 
guttural  initial  is  found  in  the  name  Childeric,  or  Hilderik. 

^  After  the  extinction  of  the  western  line  of  emperors,  the  Emperor  of 
Constantinople  was  nominally  their  sovereign,  but  with  no  real  authority  over 
them. 


OD  OVA  CAR.  341 

rience  nor  capacity  as  a  ruler.  In  his  reign  the  barbarian  soldiers 
of  Italy,  tired  of  life  in  the  camp,  and  of  the  uncertainties  of  their 
career,  demanded  to  be  treated  as  their  brethren  in  the  other 
provinces  had  been :  to  be  no  longer  quartered  in  barracks,  but 
to  receive  an  assignment  of  land,  —  demanding  one-third  of  the 
lands  in  Italy.  When  their  petition  was  denied,  they  rose  in 
mutiny,  under  the  lead  of  Odovacar,^  and  took  the  government 
of  Italy  into  their  own  hands.  Romulus  was  allowed  to  retire  to 
a  pleasant  villa  near  Naples,  and  Odovacar  ruled  the  peninsula. 

Odovacar.  — Odovacar  was  not  the  recognized  king  of  a  nation 
of  his  own,  like  Alaric,  Geiseric,  and  Clovis.  His  followers  were 
not  a  nation,  serving  under  its  own  head,  like  the  Visigoths  and 
Burgundians,  but  regularly  enlisted  soldiers  of  the  Empire  (p.  317), 
of  varied  and  mixed  nationality.  Nevertheless,  he  was  styled  king 
by  them,  and  ruled  the  German  population  of  Italy  as  the  kings 
of  the  Visigoths  and  Burgundians  ruled  their  nations.  At  the 
same  time  he,  like  them,  did  not  regard  himself  as  an  independent 
sovereign,  but  submitted  himself  to  the  authority  of  Zeno,  Emperor 
of  Constantinople,  and  received  from  him  the  title  of 
patrician,  in  virtue  of  which  he  governed  the  native  A.D,  477. 
population  of  Italy,  somewhat  as  a  viceroy. 

Survival  of  the  Empire.  —  The  removal  of  Romulus  Augustulus 
from  the  throne  of  Italy,  with  the  submission  of  that  country  to 
Odovacar,  was  shortly  followed,  as  we  have  seen,  by  the  conquest 
of  Spain  by  the  Visigoths,  and  of  northern  Gaul  by  the  Franks. 
Odovacar,  Euric,  and  Clovis  were  contemporaries.  Every  portion 
of  the  Western  Empire  was  now  occupied  and  governed  by  kings 
of  Germanic  race.  It  is  true,  the  sovereignty  of  the  Emperor  at 
Constantinople  was  still  recognized  in  name,  and  the  integrity  of 
the  Empire  was  still  maintained  in  theory ;  ^  but,  as  a  fact,  the 
Roman  Empire  was  at  an  end.     The  eastern  half,  the  Empire  of 

1  The  name  is  commonly  spelt  Odoacer ;  his  birth  is  uncertain,  but  he  is 
usually  ascribed  to  the  petty  tribe  of  the  Heruli. 

-  See  Bryce's  //ofy  Roman  Empire  and  Freeman's  review  of  it  in  the  first 
series  of  his  Historical  Essays. 


342  THE  FALL    OF   THE   EMPIRE. 

Constantinople,  still  continued,  in  all  its  forms  and  with  substantial 
power,  another  thousand  years ;  and  Charles  the  Great  ( Charle- 
f/ingfie),  after  three  hundred  years,  re-established  the  Empire  at 
Rome  in  a  form  which  survived  as  a  form  until  the  present  century.^ 
But,  however  much  the  Empire  of  Charles  owed  to  the  memories 
and  theories  of  the  Empire  of  Augustus  and  Constantine,  it  was 
yet  essentially  a  new  creation,  borrowing  the  style  of  the  old 
Empire,  and  living  on  its  traditions,  but  differing  from  it  in 
organization,  character,  and  composition.^ 

1  It  was  formally  dissolved  in  the  reconstruction  of  Germany  under  Napo- 
leon's influence  in  1806;  its  last  emperor,  Francis  11. ,  had  two  years  before 
saved  his  imperial  dignity  by  assuming  the  title  of  Emperor  of  Austria. 

2  The  period  from  the  fall  of  the  Empire  to  its  renewal  by  Charlemagne  can 
be  best  studied  in  Emerton's  Introduction  to  the  Middle  Ages,  a  book  which  in 
an  unusual  degree  combines  exact  scholarship  with  graphic  power.  See  also 
Curteis'  History  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  Church's  Beginning  of  the  Middle 
Ages  (Epochs  series);  for  larger  works  Hodgkin's  Italy  and  her  Invaders, 
and  (principally  for  the  Eastern  Empire)  Bury's  Later  Roman  Empire. 


B.C. 


CHRONOLOGICAL    SYNOPSIS    OF    ROMAN 
HISTORY. 

PERIOD    I.  — THE    MONARCHY. 

PAGE 

753.    Traditional  date  of  foundation  of  Rome.     Patrician  State;   conquest     15 

of  the  course  of  the  Tiber. 
616.    Traditional    date    of  Tarquinian    dynasty.      Empire    over    Latimn.     29 

Great  building  activity. 

PERIOD    II.  — THE    EARLY   REPUBLIC. 

509.    The  Republic;   two  consuls.     War  with  Etruscans  and  Latins.  38 

494.    Secession  of  the  Plebs  ;  establishment  of  the  tribunate.  43 

493-86.    Triple  alliance  with  Latins  and  Hernicans;   hegemony  of  Rome.  44 

Establishment  of  Latin  colonies. 

486.    Agrarian  agitations.     Death  of  Spurius  Cassius.  49 

471.    PubliUan  Law  of  Volero;    establishment  of  plebeian  assembly  by  52 

tribes. 

451-49.    The  Decemvirate;   codification  of  the  laws.  58 

445.    The  Canuleian  Law;  intermarriage  between  patricians  and  plebeians.  61 

444.    The  miUtary  tribunate;   443,  the  censorship  established;   421,  the  63 

qusestorship  thrown  open  to  plebeians. 

442.    Conquest  of  Ardea,  followed  by  that  of  other  towns.  65 

406-396.    Siege  of  Veii.     Military  reforms  of  Camillus.  67 

390.    Battle  of  the  AUia;    capture  of  Rome  by  the  Gauls.  70 
386.    Annexation  of  Pometia;   381,  of  Tusculum ;  353,  of  Caere.               73'  7^ 

384.    Sufferings  of  the  poor;   death  of  M.  Manlius.  74 

367.    The  Licinian  Laws;   equalization  of  the  orders;   attempt  to  regulate  75 

the  occupation  and  cultivation  of  the  public  lands. 

PERIOD    III.  — ITALIAN    WARS. 

354,    Treaty  with  the  Samnites;   348,  with  Carthage.  79 

343.    First  Samnite  War;   annexation  of  Capua.  79 

340-38.    Latin  War;    dissolution  of  the  Latin  Confederacy.     Establish-  80 

ment  of  municipal  system  and  of  maritime  colonies  (see  p.  99). 


344  CHRONOLOGICAL  SYNOPSIS. 

B.C.  PAGE 

339.    Publilian  Laws  of  Philo;   further  gains  of  the  plebeians.  77 

327-304.    Second   Samiiite  War;    The   Roman  army  entrapped   in  the     85 

Caudine  Forks. 
312.    Censorship  and  innovations  of  Appius  Claudius.  89 

311.    War  with  the  Etruscans;   310,  expedition  into  the  Ciminian  Forest.      88 
298-290.    Third  Samnite  War;   295,  battle  of  Sentinum.     Annexation  of    92 

the  Sabine  territory. 
286.    Sufferings  of  the  poor.     The  Hortensian  Law;   legislative  power  of    94 

the  plebeian  assembly. 
281-272.    War  with  Tarentum  and   Pyrrhus;   280,  battle  of  Heraclea;     96 

279,   of  Asculum;    275,    of  Beneventum.      Authority  of  Rome 

established  over  all  Italy. 
269.    Coinage  of  silver;   rapid  rise   of  prices   and   depreciation   of  the  102 

currency. 

PERIOD    IV. —  FOREIGN    CONQUEST. 

264-241.    First  Punic  War :   260,  battle  of  Mylse;   256,  invasion  of  Africa  106 

by  Regulus;   249,  defeat  of  Publius  Claudius ;  241,  battle  of  the 

Agates. 
241.    Peace  made:  conquest  of  Sicily;    237,  of  Sardinia  and  Corsica;    109 

222,  of  Cisalpine  Gaul.     Establishment  of  provincial  system. 
218-201.    Second  Punic  War:   Hannibal  passes  into  Italy;   battle  of  the  116 

Trebia;   217,  of  Lake  Trasimenus;   216,  of  Cannae;   surrender  of 

Capua  to  Hannibal.    215,  First  Macedonian  War.    212,  surrender  123 

of  Syracuse  to  Rome;   211,  of  Capua;   209,  of  Tarentum;    207, 

battle  of  the  Metaurus;   202,  of  Zama;   military  reforms  of  Scipio. 
201.    Peace  made  :  acquisition  of  Spain.  127 

200-196.    Second  Macedonian  War :    197,  battle  of  Cynoscephaloe;   libera-  132 

tion  of  Greece. 
192-190.    War  with  Antiochus  the  Great:    191,  battle  of  Thermopylae;    134 

190,  battle  of  Magnesia;  acquisitions  of  territory  by  Pergamus 

and  Rhodes. 
172-168.    Third  Macedonian  War:    168,  battle  of  Pydna;    Macedonia  136 

divided. 
167.    Illyricum  made  a  province.  136 

149-146.    Third  Punic  War :    146,  capture  and  destruction  of  Carthage.   143 

Province  of  Africa. 
146.    Capture    and    destruction    of  Corinth.       Province    of    Macedonia.   142 

Supremacy  of  Rome  in  the  Mediterranean. 
133.    Annexation  of  Pergamus;   province  of  Asia.  146 


CHRONOLOGICAL   SYNOPSIS.  345 


PERIOD   v.  — CIVIL   DISSENSIONS. 

B.C.  PAGE 

146-139.    War  of  Viriathus  in  Spain;    143-133,  siege  of  Numantia.  154 

133.    Legislation  and  death  of  Tiberius  Gracchus.     Creation  of  peasant  154 

freeholds. 
123-121.    Legislation  and  death  of  Gaius  Gracchus;  the  Equestrian  Order,   162 

an  aristocracy  of  wealth,  made  the  rival  of  the  Senate;   colony  of 

Narbo. 
120.    Province  of  Transalpine  Gaul.  164 

1 12-106.    War  with  Jugurtha.  167 

105-101.    War  with  Teutones  and  Cimbri :   102,  the  Teutones  defeated  168 

by  Marius  at  Aquas  Sextiae;    loi,  the  Cimbri  at  Campi  Raudii. 

Military  reforms  of  Marius. 
100,    Attempt  at  revolution  by  Saturninus  and  Glaucia.  171 

95.    Affront  given  to  the  Itahan  allies;   91,  reforms  and  death  of  Drusus;    173 

the  Varian  Commission,  to  punish  his  adherents. 
90-89.    Social  War:  admission  of  the  Italians  to  citizenship;    extension   174 

of  the  municipal  system  over  Italy. 
88.    First  Mithradatic  War  conducted  by  Sulla;   83,  Second  Mithradatic   176 

War. 
88.    Civil  War:  banishment  of  Marius;    87,  return  of  Marius;    rule  of  177 

Marius,  Cinna,  and  Carbo. 
83.    Return  of  Sulla;   aristocratic  remodelling  of  the  Roman  constitution.   179 
79.    Death  of  Sulla;    78,  attempt  of  Lepidus  to  undo  his  work.  185 

74.    Third  Mithradatic  War :  victories  of  Lucullus.  195 

73.    Revolt  of  Spartacus;   71,  suppressed  by  Crassus.  193 

72.    War  with  Sertorius  finished  by  Pompey.  193 

70.    Consulship  of  Pompey  and  Crassus;    democratic  legislation.  194 

67.    Pompey  appointed  against  the  pirates;     66,  against   Mithradates;    195 

65,  end  of  the  war;    64,  expedition  to  Syria;   its  conquest. 
63.    Cicero's  consulship;    conspiracy  of  Catiline  suppressed.  198 

60.    First   triumvirate  ;     coalition    of    Pompey,    Crassus,    and    Cajsar;    200 

59,  Caesar's  consulship;   banishment  of  Cicero;    57,  his  return. 
58-49.    Caesar's    proconsulship    in    Gaul;     56,    conference    of    Luca;    201 

55,  Caesar's  visit  to  Britain;   second  consulship  of  Pompey  and 

Crassus. 
54.    Crassus  in  the  East:   53,  battle  of  Carrhae;   his  defeat  and  death.        202 
52.    Revolt  of  Vercingetorix  in  Gaul;   anarchy  in  Rome.  208 

49.    Civil  war  of  Caesar  and  Pompey:  48,  battle  of  Pharsalus;   death  of  213 

Pompey;  46,  battle  of  Thapsus;  overthrow  of  Republic;  45,  battle 

of  Munda;   defeat  of  sons  of  Pompey. 


346  CHRONOLOGICAL   SYNOPSIS. 


B.C. 


PAGE 


49.  Caesar's  first  dictatorship;  47,  second  dictatorship;  46,  third  dicta-  214 
torship,  for  ten  years;   45,  Imperator;   44,  perpetual  dictator. 

44.  Ccesar's  assassination  ;  civil  war  between  the  Senate  and  Mark  221 
Antony. 

43.  Second  triumvirate;  Antony,  Lepidus,  and  Octavian;  38,  renewed;  227 
36,  Lepidus  set  aside;   35,  death  of  Sextus  Pompey. 

42.    Battle  of  Philippi;   defeat  and  death  of  Brutus  and  Cassius.  228 

31.    Battle  of  Actium;   Antony  and  Cleopatra  defeated  by  Octavian.  229 

PERIOD   VI.  — THE   EARLY    EMPIRE. 

The  Julian  and  Claudian  Houses. 

27.    Establishment  of  Empire;   Octavian  takes  the  name  Augustus.    The  231 

Golden  Age  of  Literature. 
15.    Conquest  of  Raetia  and  Noricum;    10,  of  Pannonia;   of  Germany  to  235 

the  Elbe. 

A.D. 

9.    Defeat  of  Varus;   the  Danube  and  Rhine  frontier.  236 

14.    Tiberius  Emperor :  rule  of  Sejanus.  245 

37.    Caligula.  249 

41.    Claudius:  conquest  of  Britain.  250 

54.  Nero:  rule  of  Tigellinus ;  64,  fire  in  Rome;  first  persecution  of  the  251 
Christians. 

The  Flavian  House. 

68-69.    Galba,  Otho,  Vitellius.  255 

69.    Vespasian  :  siege  and  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus.  255 

79.    Titus  :   destruction  of  Pompeii  and  Herculaneum.  258 

81.    Domitian:  conquest  of  Britain  completed.  259 

The  Five  Good  Emperors. 

96.    Nerva.  261 

98.    Trajan:  conquest  of  Dacia,  Arabia  Petroea,  Assyria,  etc.;  the  Silver  261 

Age  of  Literature. 

117.    Hadrian.  268 

138.    Antoninus  Pius.  269 
161.    Marcus  Aurelius :  cdnquests  in  the  East;   great  pestilence  (166);   269 

persecution  of  the  Christians;   Marcomanic  War. 

180.    Commodus.  273 


CHRONOLOGICAL   SYNOPSIS.  347 


A.D 


240 

250 


PERIOD   VII.  — CENTURY   OF    TRANSITION. 


PAGE 


Pertinax.     Didius  Julianus.  276 

93.    Septimius  Severus:   establishment  of  military  monarchy;   dis-  276,280 

solution  of  the  Praetorian  Guards. 
211.    Caracalla  [and  Geta,  d.  212]  :   citizenship  granted  to  the  pro-  277,  281 

vincials;   war  with  the  Alamanni. 
217.    Macrinus;   218,  Elagabalus.  278 

222.    Alexander    Severus :     226,    the    Sassanian    or    New    Persian  279,  289 
Empire;   murdered,  235. 
First  appearance  of  the  Franks.  285 

Persecution  of  the  Christians  by  Decius.  288 

Decius  killed  in  battle  with  the  Goths.  288 

260.    Valerian  captured  by  the  Persians.  291 

269.  The  Goths  defeated  by  Claudius.  288 

270.  Aurehan:  Dacia  given  up  to  the  Goths;   273,  capture  and  destruc-  292 

tion  of  Palmyra. 

PERIOD   VIII.  — THE    LATER    EMPIRE. 

284.    Diocletian :    reorganization   of  the    Empire  ;    absolute   monarchy ;  296 
bureaucratic  government;   new  provincial  system;   tenth  persecu- 
tion of  the  Christians;   305,  abdicated. 
306.    Constantine  the  Great;  323,  sole  Emperor;  adoption  of  Christianity;   302 
325,  Council  of  Nicsea;   328,  founding  of  new  capital  (Constanti- 
nople) ;   337,  death. 
357.    The  Alamannians  defeated  by  Julian  at  Strassburg.  312 

360.    Juhan;    apostatizes  from  Christianity;    expedition  into  the  East;   312 

363,  death. 
364.   Valentinian  I.  and  Valens.  3H 

376.    Crossing  of  the  Danube  by  the  Visigoths;   378,  battle  of  Adrianople;   318 

death  of  Valens;   the  Goths  brought  to  submission  by  Theodosius. 
375.    Gratian,  Emperor  of  the  West;   376,  edict  against  heresy.  314 

378.    Theodosius  the  Great,  Emperor  of  the  East;   391,  edict  suppressing  319 

paganism;   392,  unites  the  Empire. 
395.    Death  of  Theodosius;   division  of  the  Empire.  321 

395.  Honorius,  Emperor  of  the  West;  Arcadius,  Emperor  of  the  East;  321 
Alaric,  king  of  the  Visigoths;  402,  first  invasion  of  Italy  by  Alaric, 
defeated  by  Stihcho;  404,  invasion  of  Rhadagais;  406,  migration 
of  the  Vandals  into  Gaul;  408,  death  of  Stilicho,  second  invasion 
of  Italy  by  Alaric;  409,  the  Vandals  pass  into  Spain;  410,  third 
invasion,  sack  of  Rome;  the  Visigoths,  under  Ataulf,  pass  into 


348  CHRONOLOGICAL   SYNOPSIS. 


A.D.  PAGE 

Gaul;    413,  the  Burgundians  estal^lished   at   Worms;    419,   the 

Visigoths  at  Toulouse. 
429.    The  Vandals  take  possession  of  Africa.  329 

443.    The  Burgundians  transferred  to  Savoy.  332 

449.    Beginning  of  the  Angle  and  Saxon  conquest  of  Britain.  335 

451.    Invasion  of  Gaul  by  Attila,  king  of  the  Huns;    defeated  at  Mery-  332 

sur-Seine  by  Aetius;   453,  death  of  Attila,  and  dissolution  of  his 

empire. 
455.    Occupation  and  plunder  of  Rome  by  Geiseric,  king  of  the  Vandals;    337 

Vandal  empire  in  the  Western  Mediterranean. 
476.    The    Empire    overthrown    in    Italy    by    Odovacar    the     Herulian;    339 

480-4,  in  Spain  by  Euric,  king  of  the  Visigoths;   486,  in  Gaul  by 

Clovis,  king  of  the  Franks. 

FORMATION    OF   THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE. 

B.C. 

486.  The  Triple  Alliance;   hegemony  in  Latium.  44 

396.  Conquest  of  Veil,  followed  by  that  of  other  cities.  68 

338.  Dominion  of  Rome  in  Latium.  80 

275.  Dominion  of  Rome  in  all  Italy.  84 

241-37.    First  two  provinces  :   Sicily;    Sardinia  and  Corsica.  109,110 

222.  Conquest  of  northern  Italy. ^  122 

201.  Provinces  of  Hither  and  Further  Spain.  127 

167.  Province  of  Illyricum.  136 

146.  Provinces  of  Africa  and  Macedonia.  142,145 

133.  Asia;    120,  Transalpine  Gaul.  146,  164 

89.  Citizenship  extended  to  the  Italian  peninsula.  175 

74.  Bithynia;    74,  Cyrene;    67,  Crete;   64,  CiUcia  and  Cyprus.  196 

64.  Province  of  Syria.  196 

52.  Conquest  of  Gaul  completed.  209 

49.  Citizenship  extended  to  northern  Italy.  214 

46.  Numidia  conquered,  and  annexed  to  Africa.  218 

31.  Conquest  of  Egypt.  229 

29.  The  Danube  frontier:   Moesia;    15,  Reetia  and  Noricum;    10,  Pan-  234 

nonia. 

29.  Galatia;    Pamphylia. 

A.D. 

17.    Cappadocia;   40,  Mauretania;   43,  Britain;  46,  Thrace.  251 

105.    Conquests  of  Trajan :  Arabia  Petrgea;    106,  Dacia;    114,  Armenia;   261 
117,  Mesopotamia.    Assyria. 

1  Probably  not  organized  as  a  province  until  82. 


CHRONOLOGICAL   SYNOPSIS.  349 


DISRUPTION    OF   THE    EMPIRE. 

A.D.  PAGE 

1 1 7.  Hadrian  surrenders  the  provinces  of  Armenia,  Assyria,  and  Meso-  268 

potamia. 

270.  Dacia  occupied  by  the  Goths.  293 

282.  The  Agri  Decumates  occupied  by  the  Alamannians.  317 

—  Northern  Gaul  (^Belgium)  occupied  by  the  Franks.  317 
419.  Aquitania  occupied  by  the  Visigoths;  capital,  Toulouse.  328 
429.  Africa  occupied  by  the  Vandals;  capital,  Carthage.  330 
443.  Savoy  occupied  by  the  Burgundians;    Lyons  afterwards  made  their  332 

capital. 

—  The  Visigoths  and   Burgundians   by   degrees    occupy   all    southern  332 

Gaul;   the  Alamannians,  eastern  Gaul  {Alsace  and  Lorrauie). 
476.    The  authority   of   the   Empire   overthrown  in   Italy  by  Odovacar;   341 
480-4,  by  Euric  in  Spain;   486,  by  Clovis  in  Gaul. 


INDEX    OF    PROPER    NAMES. 


Abbreviations:  A.,  Aulus;  App.,'  Appius;  C,  Gaius;  Cn.,  Gnaeus;  D.,  Decimus;  K., 
Kseso;  L.,  Lucius;  M.,  Marcus;  M'.,  Marius;  P.,Publius;  Q.,  Quintus;  Ser.,  Servius; 
Sex.,  Sextus;  Sp.,  Spurius;  T.,  Titus;  Ti.,  Tiberius. 


Achoean  League:  132;  receives  ter- 
ritory, 134;   ally  of  Rome,  134. 

Achaia:   made  province,  143. 

Actium  :  battle,  B.C.  31,  229. 

Adriatic  Sea  :  3,  324. 

Adrianople  :   battle,  319. 

/Edui :  Gallic  tribe,  206;  join  Vercin- 
getorix,  208. 

Agates,  Id. :   battle,  B.C.  241,  109. 

/Egean:   291. 

.^gidius,  Count :   339. 

yElius  Stilo,  L. :   philologist,  191. 

yElius  Sejanus,  L. :  praetorian  praefect, 
248. 

^lia  Capitolina  {Jertisaleni)  :   258. 

yEmilian :    Emperor,  288. 

^milius  Lepidus,  M. :   civil  war,  185. 

.^milius  Lepidus,  M. :  master  of  horse, 
222;   triumvir,  227;   set  aside,  228. 

yEmilius  Paulus,  L. :  killed  at  Cannte, 
120. 

yEmilius  Paulus,  L.,  his  son :  com- 
mands at  Pydna,  136;  his  son 
Scipio,  144. 

.^neas:    18. 

^qui:    II;    wars,  43,  53,  56,  73. 

yEsculapius:   24;  worship  introduced, 

95-  . 

Aetius  :  relations  to  Valentinian  IIL, 
329;  in  Gaul,  330  fif. ;  defeats  At- 
tila,  333»  334;  death,  335;  work, 
336. 

yEtolian  League  :  132;  receives  terri- 
tory, 134;   ally  of  Antiochus,  134. 

Africa :  Roman  province,  145  ;  held 
by  Senate,  214,  217;  Boniface  gov- 
ernor, 329;   Vandals,  329. 

Agri  Decumates :   260. 

Agricola ;  see  Julius. 


Agrigentum :  captured  by  Romans, 
106. 

Agrippa:  see  Vipsanius. 

Agrippa  Postumus :    233. 

Agrippina,  wife  of  Germanicus :  243; 
ruin,  247. 

Agrippina,  her  daughter  :  250;  death, 
252. 

Ahriman :   289. 

Alamanni:  285;  cross  Alps,  293; 
contest  with  Julian,  311,  312;  set- 
tle in  empire,  317;  along  Rhine, 
332;  against  Attila,  m;  in  Gaul, 
339- 

Alans:  324,  325-       .  . 

Alaric :  king  of  Visigoths,  323;  in 
Greece,  323;  in  Italy,  323;  second 
invasion,  325 ;  captures  Rome,  326; 
sacks  Rome,  326;   death,  326. 

AlbaLonga:   10;   conquered,  17. 

Alban  Mount:  10;  occupied  by 
Rome,  29. 

Alesia :   city  of  Gaul,  208. 

Alexander:  2;  division  of  empire,  97, 
131. 

Alexander  Severus:  Emperor,  279, 
287;   Syncretism,  284. 

Alexandria,  2,  307. 

Algidus,  Mt. :  important  pass,  53,  56; 
victory  of  Postumius,  65. 

Allia,  R. :  battle,  B.C.  390,  70. 

Alps:  crossed  by  Hannibal,  116; 
crossed  by  Goths,  293. 

Alps:  Julian,  important  pass,  I,  3; 
passage  of  Visigoths  and  Ostro- 
goths, 324;   passage  of  Attila,  334. 

Alps:   Maritime,  3. 

Alsace:  312. 

Ambarvalia :   26. 


352 


INDEX  OF  PROPER  NAMES. 


Ambrose:  bishop  of  Milan,  314;  re- 
lations to  Theodosius,  321 ;  Augus- 
tine converted  by,  328. 

Ancus  Marcius:  king  of  Rome,  15; 
conquests,  17. 

Andalusia:  325. 

Andronicus :  see  Livius. 

Anglo-Saxons:  in  Britain,  335. 

Anio,  R. :  17. 

Anio  Vetus,  aqueduct :  94. 

Annius  Milo,  T. :  210. 

Anthemius :   Emperor,  337. 

Antiochia:   2. 

Antiochus  III.,  king  of  Asia :  128; 
"  the  Great,"  131  ;  war  with  Rome, 
134;  cedes  territory,  135. 

Antiimi:  Volscian  town,  53;  Roman 
colony,  82. 

Antoninus :  see  Caracalla,  Elagabalus. 

Antoninus  Pius :  Emperor,  269. 

Antonius,  M.  {Mark  An/ony)  :  trib- 
une, 213;  consul,  219-223;  power, 
224;  relations  to  Octavian,  226; 
triumvirate,  227 ;  joined  with  Cleo- 
patra, 228;  defeated  at  Actium, 
229;   death,  229. 

Antonia,  his  daughter :   252. 

Anxur :  see  Terracina. 

Apennines,  Mts. :  3. 

Apollo:   24,96,  190. 

Appian  Way:  built,  90;  to  Capua, 
161;   death  of  Clodius,  210. 

Appuleius  Saturninus,  L. :  attempt  at 
revolution,  171. 

Apulia:  4;  pasture-lands,  9 ;  Hanni- 
bal, 125. 

Aquae  Sextiai:  battle,  B.C.  102,  169. 

Aquileia :  2 ;  attacked  by  Marcomani, 
273;   destroyed  by  Attila,  334. 

Aquillius,  M'. :  governor  of  Asia,  177. 

Aquitania:  209. 

Arabia  Petraea :  conquered,  262. 

Arabian  desert :  292. 

Arar,  R.  (Saone) :  route  into  Gaul,  205. 

Aransio  (^Orange):  victory  of  Cimbri, 
169. 

Arcadius:  Emperor  of  East,  321, 

Archimedes  :  death,  1 24. 

Ardashir:   289. 

Ardea:  Latin  town,  18;  colony,  65; 
exile  of  Camillus,  74. 

Arelate  {Aries)  :  339. 


Ares  {Mars)  :   23,  190. 

Arian  :   controversy,  306,  307. 

Aricia :  Latin  town,  18;  chief  of  con- 
federacy, 45 ;  annexed  to  Rome,  80. 

Ariminum :  Latin  colony,  1 12;  in 
Second  Punic  War,  119. 

Ariovistus :  German  king,  206. 

Arius :   307,  308. 

Armenia:   allied  with  Pontus,  176. 

Arminius :  German  warrior,  236. 

Armoricans,  339. 

Arnus,  R.  {Arno)  :  4;  in  Second 
Punic  War,  119. 

Arpinum:   birthplace  of  Cicero,  197. 

Arretium:  Etruscan  town,  6;  occu- 
pied by  Flaminius,  119. 

Arsacidas :   289. 

Artaxerxes:   289,291. 

Arverni :   Gallic  tribe,  208. 

Aryan  race :  4. 

Asculum :  battle,  B.C.  279,  98. 

Asia  Minor:  2;  war  with  Antiochus, 
134,  135;  war  with  Mithradates, 
1 76-1 78;  in  power  of  Zenobia,  294. 

Asinius  PoUio,  C. :  orator,  242. 

Astarte  :  Phcenician  goddess,  105. 

Astyages :   289. 

Ataulf:  king  of  Goths,  326,  327; 
death,  327. 

Athanasian  controversy :   306-308. 

Athanasius:  307,  328. 

Athena  {Minerva)  :    190. 

Athens:  empire,  45;   laws,  58. 

Atilius  Regulus,  M. :  commander, 
107,  108. 

AttalusL:  king  of  Pergamus,   132. 

Attalus  IL:  king  of  Pergamus;  be- 
queaths his  dominions  to  Rome, 
146;   his  treasures,  157. 

Attila:  king  of  the  Huns,  332;  inva- 
sion of  Gaul,  333;  Chalons,  2>1>Z'> 
invasion  of  Italy,  334;    death,  334. 

Aufidus,  R. :  4;  in  Second  Punic 
War,  120. 

Augustus :  makes  Achaia  a  province, 
143;  renews  colony  of  Carthage, 
145;  tribunician  power,  163;  di- 
vorce, 1 89 ;  returns  to  Rome,  226  ; 
triumvirate,  227-230;  Emperor,  232; 
establishes  Danube  frontier,  235 ; 
death,  237;  Age  of  Augustus,  238- 
242. 


INDEX  OF  PROPER   NAMES. 


353 


Aurelian  :  Emperor,  288;   reign,  292; 

campaign    against     Zenobia,    294; 

subjugates  Gaul,  295;    mentioned, 

297;   reforms  in  currency,  303. 
Aurelius,     M. :     Emperor,     269-274; 

persecution     of     Christians,     271; 

Marcomanic  War,  273;  statue,  280. 
Augustine :  bishop  of  Hippo,  328, 
Aventine,  Mt. :   enclosed,  31;   temple 

of  Diana,  34;  assigned  to  plebeians, 

57;   secession,  59;   temple  of  Juno, 

68. 
Avitus :   Emperor,  337. 
Avidius  Cassius  :  general,  270. 

Bacchus:   24;   secret  rites,  140. 

Bagaudae :   295. 

Balearic    Isles:     taken    by    Geiseric, 

338. 
Baltic  :  Visigoths  on,  318. 
Barca :   see  Hamilcar. 
Barcelona :   327. 
Belgica :   209. 
Bellona:   23. 

Beneventum:  battle,  B.C.  275,  98. 
Bethlehem:   328. 
Bithynia:    independent,   132;    ally  of 

Rome,  134;   bequeathed  to  Rome, 

196;   governed  by  Pliny,  265. 
Black  Sea:    i,  176,  291,  309,  318. 
Blandina :  martyr,  272. 
Bocchus:  king   of   Mauritania;    aids 

Rome,  168. 
Bola  :  captured  by  Rome,  67. 
Boniface:    governor  of  Africa,  329; 

invites    the  Vandals,   330;     death, 

330- 

Bosporus :   309. 

Britain:  4;  visited  by  Caesar,  207; 
conquered,  251;  part  of  rival  em- 
pire, 292;  commanded  by  Constan- 
tius,  298;  ruled  by  the  usurper, 
Constantine,  324;  withdrawal  of 
Roman  troops,  335;   Anglo-Saxons 

in,  335- 
Britannicus  :  son  of  Claudius,  25 1,  252. 
Brittany :   339. 
Brutus :  see  Junius. 
Burgundians :    at    Worms,    332;     in 

Gaul,    332;     against    Attila,    ZZV^ 

dominions,  339. 
Burrhus  :   praetorian  praefect,  252. 


Busento,  R. :   326. 

Byzantium :  site  of  capital,  309. 

Cascilius  Metellus,  Q.  (Numidicus) : 
war  with  Jugurtha,  167;  refuses 
oath,  172. 

Caecilius  Metellus,  Q.  (Pius)  :  com- 
mander in  Social  War,  174;  joins 
Sulla,  180;  commands  against  Ser- 
torius,  193. 

Caecilius  Metellus,  Q.  (Scipio)  :  con- 
sul, 211;    defeated  at  Thapsus,  217. 

Caecilius:   dramatist,  1 14. 

Caere:  Etruscan  town,  6;  tomb  of 
the  Tarquins,  36;  conquered  by 
Rome,  78. 

Caesar:  see  Julius. 

Ceesars:  Twelve,  260. 

Calabria:    5. 

Caligula :   see  Gains. 

Callimachus  :   Greek  poet,  241. 

Calpurnius  Piso,  Cn.  :  quarrel  with 
Germanicus,  247. 

Camillus :   see  Furius. 

Campania:  4;    Etruscans,  6, 

Cannae:  l)attle,  121,  122;  order  of 
troops,  126. 

Canusium:  town  near  Cannse,  122. 

Capena  :   captured  by  Rome,  68. 

Capitoline  Mount :  34;  seized  Herdo- 
nius,  56;  besieged  by  Gauls,  71; 
faced  with  stone,  73. 

Capitoline  Triad  :   7,  23. 

Cappadocia:   independent,  132. 

Capreae  (  Capri)  :  residence  of  Tibe- 
rius, 248. 

Capua:  6;  conquered  by  Samnites, 
67,  79;  received  Hannibal,  122; 
captured,   124;   gladiatorial  school, 

193. 

Caracalla      (Antoninus)  :      Emperor, 
277,  287;   baths,  280;    edict,   172, 
281 ;   debasement  of  currency,  282;  1 
defeats  Alamanni,  285. 

Carbo  :   see  Papinius. 

Carinus:  Emperor,  288. 

Carna,  22. 

Carrhae:  battle,  B.C.  53,  203. 

Carthage:  2;  treaty  with  Rome,  35, 
79;  war  with  Pyrrhus,  98;  first 
war  with  Rome,  104-109;  revolt 
of  Mercenaries,  109;    second   war 


354 


INDEX   OF  PROPER   NAMES. 


with    Rome,    115-12S;     third   war 

with  Rome,  143-145;   colony,  145; 

chief  city  of  Africa,    145;    refuge 

of  Marius,  178. 
Carthago    Nova:     founded    by    Has- 

drubal,  1 16. 
Carus :  see  Lucretius. 
Carus  :   Emperor,  288,  297. 
Caspian  Sea:   132. 
Cassius,  Spurius;   treaty  with  Latium, 

44;   agrarian  laws,  46  ff. ;  death,  46, 

49,  74- 

Cassius,  Q. :  tribune,  213. 

Cassius  Longinus,  C. :  conspirator, 
221 ;  governor  of  Syria,  224;  death, 
228. 

Castor :  36,  96. 

Catilina:  see  Sergius. 

Cato :  see  Porcius. 

Catullus:   see  Velerius. 

Catullus:  see  Lutatius. 

Caudine  Forks  :  defeat  of  Romans,  87. 

Caudium :   87. 

Cenomani:  sided  with  Rome,  117. 

Ceres:   24,96;   festival,  122. 

Chalons:  battle,  333,  334;   site,  333. 

Charles  the  Great  ( Charlemagne)  : 
342. 

Cherusci :  German  tribe,  236. 

Childeric :   340. 

Christianity:  as  an  organization,  306; 
doctrine,  306;  made  the  only  law- 
ful religion,  315. 

Christians:  persecuted  by  Nero,  253; 
by  Trajan,  267;  by  M.  Aurelius, 
271;  organization,  282;  persecuted 
by  Diocletian,  300;  tolerated  by 
Constantine,  302,  304;  relations  of 
Julian  to,  313;  edict  of  Gratian 
against  heretics,  314. 

Cicero :  see  TuUius. 

Cilicia:  war  with  pirates,  195;  made 
province,  196. 

Cilnius  Maecenas,  C. :   241. 

Cimbri :  invasion,  168-170, 

Ciminian  Forest:  passed  by  Fabius, 
88. 

Cincinnatus:   see  Quinctius. 

Cineas :   embassy  to  Rome,  98. 

Cinna :  see  Cornelius. 

Circeii :  colony,  35,  46. 

Circus  Maximus ;  26,252. 


Civilis:   insurrection,  256. 

Claudian :   poet,  322. 

Claudius:     Emperor,    250-251,    288; 

Rhodes  loses  independence,  135. 
Claudius,    Appius :      migrated     from 

Sabines,  22. 
Claudius,  Appius:  decemvir,  59. 
Claudius,  Appius,  Cxcus  :    censor,  89- 

91 ;   opposes  propositions  of  Cineas, 

Claudius,  Ajipius,  his  son :  advises  to 

receive  Mamertines,  106. 
Claudius,    Gothicus ;     Emperor,    288, 

292,  297. 
Claudius,  Publius  :   loses  naval  battle, 

108,  190. 
Claudius  Marcellus,  M. :   commander 

in  Second  Punic  War,  123-124. 
Claudius   Nero,  C.  :   gains    victory  at 

the    Metaurus,    125;    quarrel    with 

Livius,  128. 
Claudius  Nero,  Ti.,  husband  of  Li  via  : 

233- 
Claudius  Marcellus,  M.,  son  of  Octa- 

via:   233. 
Clement :  Christian  father,  282. 
Cleon:   112. 
Cleopatra:     Queen    of    Egypt,    216; 

visits   Caesar,    220;    joins    Antony, 

228;    death,  229. 
Cloaca  Maxima :   30. 
Clodius,  P.:   112;    enemy  of  Cicero, 

201;   death,  210. 
Clodius  Albinus  :   277. 
Clovis :      ascendency      over      Salian 

Franks,  340;    defeats  Syagrius,  340. 
Clusium  :  Etruscan  town,  6;  war  with 

Rome,  35 ;   attacked  by  Gauls,  70. 
Coelian  Hill:    17. 
CoUina  (tribe)  :   33. 
CoUineGate:  (battle)  180. 
Colosseum :   258. 
Columna  jNIaeniana :   83. 
Comitium :    17,83;   narrowed,  239. 
Commodus :   Emperor,  273. 
Concordia:  temple:  renewed,  165. 
Constans:  311. 
Constantine :     Emperor,    301 ;     puts 

Maximian  to  death,  302;   adminis- 
tration, 302-310;    death,  311. 
Constantine,  son  of  Constantine  the 

Great:   3U. 


IXDEX   OF  PROPER   NAMES. 


355 


Constantine,  the  Usurper  :  324;  over- 
thrown, 327. 
Constantinople  :   site,  309. 
Constantius,  Chlorus :    298,  300,  301, 

304- 

Constantius  II. :   311. 

Constantius :    327. 

Consualia :  feast  of  Consus,  26. 

Cora:  independent,  80. 

Corcyra:   alliance  with  Rome,  112. 

Corfinium :  capital  of  Italy,  1 74. 

Corinthus:  congress,  133;  destroyed, 
142. 

Coriolanus :  legend,  56. 

Cornelia:  marries  Gracchus,  154;  221. 

Cornelius  Scipio  Barbatus,  L. :  sar- 
cophagus, 103. 

Cornelius  Scipio,  P.:  consul,  116;  in 
Italy,  117;  in  Spain,  119;  death, 
124. 

Cornelius  Scipio,  Cn.,  his  brother : 
116;    in  Spain,  119;    death,  124, 

Cornelius  Scipio,  P.  (Africanus),  his 
brother:  in  Spain,  124-125;  wins 
battle  of  Zama,  126-127;  policy, 
139;  exile  and  death,  140;  Greek 
culture,  140. 

Cornelius  Scipio,  P.  (Nasica)  :  the 
best  Roman,  129. 

Cornelius  Scipio,  L.  (Asiaticus)  :  con- 
ducts war  with  Antiochus,  134; 
accused,  140. 

Cornelius  Scipio,  P.  (Africanus  .Emil- 
ianus)  :  commands  in  Third  Punic 
War,  144-145;    death,  158. 

Cornelius  Scipio,  P.  (Nasica  Serapio): 
murderer  of  Gracchus,  157. 

Cornelius  Sulla,  L. :  captures  Jugur- 
tha,  1 68 ;  commands  in  Social  War, 
174;  against  Mithradates,  177-178; 
Civil  War,  179-181;  legislation, 
181-185;   spares  Coesar,  200. 

Cornelius  Cinna,  L. :  rule  in  Rome, 
179. 

Corsica,  Id.:  3;  occupied  by  Etrus- 
cans, 6;  trade  with  Rome,  79; 
seized  by  Rome,  no;  Geiseric  de- 
feated, 338;   taken  by  Geiseric,  338. 

Corvus  :  see  Valerius. 
Crenona  :   Latin  colony,  112. 
Crete:  348. 
Crispus :   death,  308. 


Crispus :  see  Salustus. 

Ctesiphon:  Parthian  capital,  270. 

Curio :   see  Scribonius. 

Curius  Dentatus,  M. :  controversy  with 
Ap.  Claudius,  91;  finishes  the  war, 
93;  conquers  Sabines,  93;  charac- 
ter, 93;  defeats  Pyrrhus,  98;  com- 
pared with  Cato,  139,  150. 

Cursor :   see  Papirius. 

Cybele  :  worship  introduced  in  Rome, 
129. 

Cynoscephalce :  battle,  B.C.  197,  132, 
136. 

Cyprus,  Id. :   conquered,  196. 

Cyrus,  the  Persian  :   289. 

Dacia:  conquered,  261;  troubled  by 
Goths,  284;  occupied  by  Goths, 
293;   by  Gepidae,  335. 

Dalmatia:    301. 

Dalmatians :   triumph,  229. 

Dalmatius:   311. 

Daraasippus :  see  Junius, 

Danube,  R. :  territory  conquered  by 
Augustus,  234;  Aurelian  withdraws 
garrisons  to  south  of,  293;  Galerius 
commands  on,  298;  crossed  by  Visi- 
goths, 319;   site  of  Vandals,  324. 

Darius :   289. 

Decemvirs:   27. 

Decius  M.  P. :  commander,  86;  de- 
votion, 92. 

Decius :   Emperor,  288. 

Delos:  confederacy,  45;  gains  com- 
merce, 142. 

Dentatus  :   see  Curius  Sicinius. 

Diana:   24;   temple  on  Aventine,  34. 

Didius  Julianus  :   Emperor,  276. 

Diocletian:  Emperor,  288;  suppresses 
the  Bagaudoe,  295;  reforms,  296- 
301 ;  abdication,  301 ;  reforms  in 
currency,  303;  murder  of  widow 
of,  304. 

Diodorus:  35. 

Domitianus :   Emperor,  259. 

Drepana :   attacked,  108. 

Drusus  :  see  Livius. 

Drusus,  son  of  Livia  :  233 ;  death,  235. 

Drusus :  son  of  Tiberius,  243  ;  death, 
248. 

Duilius,  C. :  gains  battle  of  MyLx, 
107. 


356 


INDEX  OF  PROPER   NAMES. 


Dyrrhachium :     attached    by    Caesar, 

215- 

East  Goths :  see  Ostrogoths. 

Eboracum  (  York)  :  277. 

Egypt:  2;  ruled  by  the  Ptolemies, 
131 ;  annexed  to  Rome,  229;  taken 
by  Zenobia,  294. 

Elagabalus :  Emperor,  278;  debase- 
ment   of   currency,    282;    religion, 

,  2^3-  . 

Eleusinian  Triad  :  96. 

Emesa:  a  city  of  Syria,  278. 

Ennius,  Q. :  poet,  113. 

Ephesus:  city  in  Asia,  146. 

Epicurus:   philosophy,  191. 

Epitlaurus :  worship  of  yEsculapius, 
96. 

Ermanarich:  318. 

Ercte,  M. :   108. 

Eryx,  M. :   108. 

Esquilina  (tribe)  :   33. 

Esquiline  Hill :    11. 

Etruria  (Etruscany) :  5ff.;  dynasty 
of  kings,  29  ff.;  war  with  Rome, 
35;  influence,  36;  loss  of  power, 
67;  war  with  Rome,  73,  88,  92; 
invaded  by  Hannibal,  119;  Cati- 
line's army,  199. 

Eudoxia,  wife  of  Valentinian  IH. : 
;^^y;   calls  Geiseric  to  Rome,  337. 

Eum^nes  H. :  King  of  Pergamus; 
ally  of  Rome,  134. 

Euphrates,  R. :  l ;  boundary  of  Par- 
thian empire,  135,  268;  crossed  by 
Julian,  313. 

Euric:  King  of  Visigoths;  extends 
boundaries  of  his  empire,  339. 

Fabian  gens:  war  with  Veii,  22,  51. 

Fabius,  K. :  performs  sacrifice,  71. 

Fabius  Maximus,  Q. :  dictator,  120; 
conducts  war,  123,  125. 

Fabius  Maximus,  Q. :  commander, 
86-88;  conservatism,  90;  com- 
mands at  Sentinum,  92. 

Fabius  Pictor,  Q. :   historian,  113. 

Fabricius,  C. :  statesman,  94;   censor, 

lOI. 

Fassulae  {Fiesole)  :   6;   camp  of  Man- 

lius,  199. 
Fausta,  wife  of  Constantine :  308. 


Felsina  {Bologna)  :   6. 

Fetiales :   26. 

Fidense:  Etruscan  town,  17,  29;  cap- 
tured by  Rome,  67. 

Flaccus  :   see  P  ulvius,  Valerius. 

Flamininus :   see  Quinctius. 

Flaminius,  C. :  divides  Gallic  land, 
112;   killed  at  Trasimenus,  119. 

Flaminian  Way:  built,  112;  to  Arimi- 
num,  161. 

Flavius,  Cn. :   divulges  legal  forms,  91. 

Flora,  23. 

Florence :   292,  324. 

Florian :    Emperor,  288. 

Fora  of  the  Caesars  :   238. 

Formias :   annexed  to  Rome,  82. 

Forum:  17;  drained,  30;  adorned, 
83;  basilica,  141 ;  new  edifices,  238. 

Forum  Boarium  :   2>^. 

Forum  Holitorium :   83. 

Franks:  285,291;  confederacy,  31 1 ; 
settle  in  empire,  317;  along  Rhine 
332;  relations  to  Attila,  332,  333; 
conquests,  339;  rise  under  Clovis, 
340. 

Fratres  Arvales :   26. 

Fregellas,  Latin  colony:  revolt,  149, 

Frontinus :  author,  265. 

Fucinus  Pacus  :   drained,  251. 

Fulvius  Flaccus,  M. :   death,  165. 

Fundi :   annexed  to  Rome,  82. 

Furius  Camillus,  M. :  capture  of  Veii, 
68;  military  reforms,  68-70;  com- 
mander in  war,  73;  character,  73; 
temple  of  Concord,  75. 

Gal^ii :  Latin  town,  17;  annexed  to 
Rome,  34. 

Gades :   Phfjenician  colony,  104,  115. 

Gaius  Cccsar,  son  of  Julia :   233. 

Gaius  (Caligula)  :    Emperor,  249. 

Galatia:   independent,  132, 

Galba:   Emperor,  255. 

Galerius:  Emperor,  29S,  300,  301, 
302,  304. 

Gallienus  :  Emperor,  288;  reign,  291; 
relations  to  Odenatus,  292;  charac- 
ter of  reign,  297. 

Gallus :    Emperor,  288. 

Gaul,  Cisalpine:  4;  governed  by 
Ciesar,  20i;  receives  citizenship, 
214. 


INDEX  OF  PROPER   NAMES. 


357 


Gaul,  Transalpine:  province,  164; 
invaded  by  Cimbri,  169;  governed 
by  Caesar,  201 ;  conquered,  205- 
209;  invaded  by  Franks,  291;  part 
of  rival  empire,  292;  subjugation 
by  Aurelian,  295;  commanded  by 
Constantius,  298;  invaded  by  Van- 
dals, 324;  ruled  by  Constantine, 
the  Usurper,  324;  Aetius  in,  330; 
Visigoths  in  southwest  of,  330; 
Burgundians  in,  332;  Attila  in, 
T^T^y,   under  Syagrius,  339. 

Gauls:  8;  conquests  in  Italy,  67; 
capture  of  Rome,  70-72;  wars 
with  Rome,  78,  92;  conquered  by 
Rome,  III,  136. 

Geiseric :  King  of  the  Vandals,  326; 
character,  330;  encourages  Attila, 
333;  takes  Rome,  337;  power,  338; 
defeated  at  Corsica,  338;  becomes 
master  of  Western  Mediterranean, 

338. 

Genghis  Khan  :   332,  334. 

Gepidae:   332;   in  Dacia,  335. 

Germanicus :  wars  in  Germany,  236, 
246;  adopted  by  Tiberius,  243; 
death,  247. 

Germans:  invasions,  168,  273,  291- 
293;  Arians  in  religion,  307;  inva- 
sions, 311,  312;  within  the  empire, 
317;  characteristics,  317;  invasions, 
323-325;   massacre,  325. 

Germany :  visited  by  Coesar,  208. 

Geta:   Emperor,  277,  287. 

Glaucia :  see  Servilius. 

Golden  Horn :   309. 

Gordian :   Emperor,  287,  288. 

Goths:  on  Black  Sea,  284;  into 
yEgean,  291;  occupy  Dacia,  293; 
in  the  empire  as  colonists,  317; 
Gothic  empire,  318;  settlement  un- 
der Theodosius,  320. 

Gracchus :  see  Sempronius. 

Gratian :   Emperor,  314-315;   319. 

Greece:  influence,  36;  part  of  Con- 
stantine's  dominions,  302. 

Hadrian:  Emperor;  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  258;   reign,  268-269. 

Hamilcar  Barca  :  commands  in  Sicily, 
108;   conquest  of  Spain,  115. 

Hannibal:  Second  Punic  War,  115- 


128;     death,    135;    destruction   of 

Italy,  151. 
Hannibalianus :   311. 
Hasdrubal,  son-in-law  of  Hamilcar: 

116. 
Hasdrubal,    brother     of     Hannibal: 

leaves    Spain,    124;     defeated    at 

Metaurus,  125. 
Hatria  :   Latin  colony,  93. 
Helena,  mother  of  Constantine  :   304. 
Helvetii :  Gallic  tribe,  206. 
Heraclea :  battle,  B.C.  280,  97. 
Herculaneum :  destruction,  258. 
Hercules :  worship,  90. 
Herdonius,  Appius :  seizure  of  capitol, 

55- 

Hermes  {Mercury)  :   190. 

Hermodorus:  58. 

Hernicans:  ii;  alliance  with  Rome, 
44;  cut  off  from  Rome,  53;  con- 
federacy dissolved,  85. 

Hiero:  King  of  Syracuse,  106;  death, 
123. 

Hirtius,  A. :   consul,  227. 

Honorius :  Emperor  of  West,  321, 
322;   reign,  323-325. 

Horace :  see  Horatius. 

Horatius,  Marcus:    consul,  B.C.   449, 

59- 
Horatius  Flaccus,  Q. :  poet,  240. 
Hortensius,  Q. :  dictator,  94. 
Hostilian:   Emperor,  288. 
Huns:     invasions,    318-319;     under 

Attila,  332-335 ;   battle  of  Chalons, 

A.D.  451,  334. 

Iberians:  5;  subjects  of  Carthage, 
104;   in  southwestern  Gaul,  205. 

Ignatius :   martyrdom,  268. 

Illyricum :  wars  with  Rome,  1 12; 
made  a  province,  136;  governed 
by  CiEsar,  20 1 . 

Irenaeus  of  Lyons  :  282. 

Isis :   24. 

Islam :   290. 

Italia:  city,  174. 

lulus:    18. 

Jacquerie:   219. 

Janiculum,    Mt. :     12;    enclosed,  31 ; 

secession,  94. 
Janus:   24,  1 90;   temple  closed,  229. 


358 


INDEX   OF  PROPER   NAMES. 


Japygians:  5. 

Jerome,  St.  :  328. 

Jerusalem:   entered  by  Pompey,  196; 

captured  by  Titus,  257. 
John,  the  Apostle  :   272. 
Jovian:   Emperor,  314. 
Juba:   King  of  Mauretania,  213. 
Judaea:    part   of    Syria,   255;    revolt, 

256,  328. 
Jugurtha :    King    of   Numidia;    war, 

167-168. 
Julia,  daughter  of  Julius  Cassar :  202. 
Julia,    daughter   of    Augustus:     189; 

married  Agrippa,  233. 
Julia     Domna,    wife     of     Septimius 

Severus :   283. 
Julia  Mtiesa,  her  sister  :   283. 
Julia   Mammce,  mother  of  Alexander 

Severus :   278,  283. 
Julia  Loemias,  mother  of  Elagabalus : 

278,  283. 
Julian,  the  Apostate  :  31 1-314;  death, 

314- 
Julius  Caesar,  L. :  commander  in  So- 
cial War,  174. 
Julius  Cxsar,  C. :  statesmanship,  185; 
divorce,  189;  writings,  191,  204; 
associated  with  Catiline,  199;  forms 
triumvirate,  200;  conquers  Gaul, 
205-209;  visits  Britain,  207;  breach 
with  Pompey,  207;  Civil  War,  213; 
dictator,  214;  war  in  Greece,  215; 
in  the  East,  216 ;  suppresses  mutiny, 
217;  war  in  Africa,  217;  legisla- 
tion, 218;  battle  of  Munda,  219; 
ambition,  220;  conspiracy  for  his 
death,  221-223;  character,  224. 
Julius  Agricola,  Cn. :  conquest  of  Brit- 
ain, 251. 

uliusNepos:  Emperor,  337. 

unius  Brutus,  D. :  conspirator,  221; 
governor  of  Cisalpine  Gaul,  224; 
besieged,  227. 

unius  Brutus,  L. :   221. 

unius  Brutus,  M. :  conspirator,  221  ; 
governor  of  Macedonia,  224;  death, 
228. 

unius  Damasippus,  L. :  massacre,  180. 

uno:  23;  temple  in  Veii,  68;  Mo- 
neta  temple,  102. 

unonia  (Carthage)  :   145,  164. 

upiter :   23. 


Justin  Martyr :   272. 
Juvenalis :  satirist,  265. 

Labicum  :  conquered  by  Rome,  67. 

Lanuvium  :  annexed  by  Rome,  80. 

Latium :  4,  lo;  Tarquinian  empire, 
29,  34;  alliance  with  Rome,  44; 
war,  80;  confederacy  dissolved,  80; 
name  extended,  81. 

Latin  Way  :  4,  53. 

Laurentem :  Latin  town,  18;  inde- 
pendent, 80. 

Leo  L  :   Emperor,  337. 

Leo  the  Great :  embassy  to  Attila, 
335  ;  intercedes  with  Vandals,  338. 

Lepidus :  see  /Emilius. 

Liber :   96. 

Libera :   96. 

Libyans  :  subjects  of  Carthage,  104. 

Licinius:  Emperor,  302;  bloodshed, 
.304- 

Licinius  Crassus,  L. :  orator,  173. 

Licinius  Crassus,  M. :  joins  Sulla,  180; 
buys  confiscated  property,  181 ; 
commands  against  Spartacus,  194; 
consul,  194  forms  triumvirate,  200; 
war  in  the  East,  202-203. 

Licinius  Lucullus,  L. :  commands 
against  Mithradates,  195. 

Licinius  Murena,  L. :  Second  Mithra- 
datic  W^ar,  178. 

Licinius  Stolo,  C. :  laws,  74-76;  pun- 
ishment, 76. 

Ligurians:   5;   conquered,  136. 

Lilybn^um :   besieged,  108. 

Liris,  R. :   4. 

Liternum  :   death  of  Scipio,  140. 

Livia  :  marries  Augustus,  233, 

Livia,  wife  of  Drusus :   248. 

Livius  Andronicus :  poet,  113. 

Livius  Drusus,  ]SL  :  opposes  C.  Grac- 
chus, 165. 

Livius  Drusus,  ]\L  :  reforms,  173. 

Livius,  M. :   pontiff,  92, 

Livius,  AL  :  gains  victory  at  the  Me- 
taurus,  125;  quarrels  with  Nero, 
128. 

Livius  Patavinus,  T.  :  historian,  241. 

Loire,  R.:  northern  boundary  of  Euric's 
empire,  339. 

Longinus :  see  Cassius. 

Longinus :  philosopher,  294. 


INDEX   OF  PROPER   NAMES. 


359 


Longus:  see  Sempronius. 
Lorenzo  de  Medici :   292. 
Lorraine:   312. 
Luca :  conference,  201. 
Lucania:  9;   allied  with  Rome,  92. 
Lucanus:  poet,  252,  254. 
Luceres  (tribe)  :    17. 
Lucius  Caesar,  son  of  Julia :   233. 
Lucretius  Carus,  T. :  poet,  191,  203. 
Lugdunensis :   209. 
Lugdunum   {Lyons)  :    209;    persecu- 
tion, 272;   capital  of  Burgundians, 

339,  340. 
Luperci :   26. 

Lusitania:   occupied  by  Vandals,  325. 
Lutatius     Catulus,     C. :      victory     at 

yEgates,  109. 
Lutatius  Catulus,  Q. :  victory  at  Rau- 

dian  Fields,  169. 
Lutatius   Catulus,    Q.,  his   son :    civil 

war,  185. 
Lutitia  Parisiorum  {Paris)  :   312. 
Lybius  Severus  :   Emperor,  337. 
Lycia :   independent,  229. 
Lyons :  see  Lugdunum. 
Lysimachus :  king  of  Thrace,  97. 

Maccabees:  independence  of  Jews, 
136. 

Macedonia:  first  war  with  Rome,  123; 
second,  132;  third,  136;  divided, 
137;  province,  142;  part  of  Con- 
stantine's  dominion,  302. 

Macrinus  :   Emperor,  277,  287. 

Macro  :  praetorian  praefect,  248. 

Mseander,  R. :    135. 

Maecenas :   see  Cilnius. 

Maecia  (tribe)  :    129. 

Maelius,  Sp. :   treason,  74. 

Maenius,  C. :  adornment  of  Forum,  83. 

Magna  Graecia :  9= 

Magnesia:  battle,  B.C.  190,  134,  136. 

Mago  :  work  on  agriculture,  141. 

Magyars:   334. 

Majorian  :  Emperor,  337;  holds  Van- 
dals in  check,  338;    death,  338. 

Mamertini,  Campanian  mercenaries : 
106. 

Manlius,  M. :  saves  capitol,  71;  trea- 
son, 74. 

Manlius,  M. :  accomplice  of  Catiline, 
199- 


Manlius  Torquatus,  T. :  fight  with 
Gaul,  78. 

Mantua  :   Etruscan  town,  6. 

Marcellus :   see  Claudius. 

Marcian:    Emperor,  337. 

Marcomani :  German  nation,  235; 
war,  273;    confederacy,  285. 

Marius,  C. ;  conducts  war  against 
Jugurtha,  167-168;  against  Cimbri, 
169-170;  military  reforms,  170; 
commander  in  Social  ^Var,  174; 
Civil  War,  178-179. 

Marius,  C,  his  son:    179,  180. 

Marmora:   see  Propontis. 

Mars:  father  of  Romulus,  14;  Roman 
god,  23,  190. 

Martialis:   epigrammatist,  266. 

Masinissa:  king  of  Numidia,  126- 
128;   aids  Romans,  143. 

Massilia:  Greek  city  in  Gaul,  116; 
commerce,  145;  government,  187; 
captured  by  Caesar,  213;  indepen- 
dent, 229. 

Mauritania:  enlarged,  168;  indepen- 
dent, 229. 

Maxentius:   301,302,304. 

Maximian:    297-298,  301,  302,  304. 

Maximin:   Caesar,  301. 

Maximin  :   Emperor,  279,  287. 

Maximus:   see  Fabius. 

Maximus :   Emperor,  288. 

Maximus  :   Emperor,  335,  337. 

Mazdeism:   289,  290. 

Median  empire :   289. 

Mediolanum  (Ji/Zaw)  :  9,298;  capi- 
tal of  West,  309,  325;  occupied 
by  Attila,  334. 

Mediterranean  Lands :    I. 

Menander:   dramatist,  141. 

Meriurius :    190. 

Messalina,  wife  of  Claudius:   250. 

Messalla:  see  Valerius. 

Messana:  seized  by  Mamertines,  106; 
independent,  ill. 

INIetaurus,  R. :   battle,  B.C.  207,  125. 

Metellus :   see  Caecilius. 

Milan :   see  Mediolanum. 

Miletus:   city  in  Asia,  146.    / 

Milo :  see  Annius. 


Minerva : 


190. 


MinturniK :   Roman  colony,  82;   cap- 
ture of  Marius,  1 78. 


360 


INDEX   OF  PROPER  NAMES. 


Mithradates  I.:   kinj^  of  Partliia,  135. 
jMithradates    III.:    king    of    I'arthia, 

202. 
Mithradates  VI. :  king  of  Pontus;  first 

and    second  wars,   176-178;    third 

war,  195-196. 
Moesia  :   conquered  by  Augustus,  234. 
Mohammed:   291. 
Moloch  :   Phoenician  god,  105. 
Mucianus  :   governor  of  Syria,  256. 
Mucius    Scaevola,    Q. :     consul,     173; 

death,  180;  jurist,  191. 
Mummius,  L. :   destroys  Corinth,  142. 
Munda;    battle,  B.C.  45,  219. 
Murena:   see  I^icinius. 
Mus :  see  Decius. 
Mutina    {Modena)  :     battle,   B.C.   43, 

227. 
Myls; :   naval  battle,  B.C.  260,  107. 

Ncevius,  Cn. :   poet,  1 14. 

Nar,  R. :   94. 

Narbo :   colony,  164. 

Narbonne  :   327. 

Netherlands :     inhabited     by    Salian 

Franks,  340. 
Neo-Platonism :   283,313. 
Nepete  :    Latin  colony,  68. 
Neptune:    22;    Equestrian,  26. 
Nero :  see  Claudius. 
Nero   Claudius,  Ti.  :    Emperor,  251- 

254;    debasement  of  currency,  282. 
Nerva:   Emperor,  261. 
Nicaea :   council,  307, 
Nicomedia  :   298,  307,  309, 
Nile,  R.:    i. 
Nodotus :    22. 

Nomentum  :   annexed  to  Rome,  80. 
Norba :    colony,  45. 
Noricum :     conquered    by   Augustus, 

235- 

Numa  Pompilius :   king  of  Rome,  15. 
Numidia:    subject  to  Carthage,   104; 

in  Second  Punic  War,  126;  divided, 

168. 

Octavia,    sister     of    Octavian :     229; 

mother  of  Marcellus,  233. 
Octavia,  wife  of  Nero:   252. 
Octavius,  C. :   see  Augustus. 
Octavius,  Cn. :  consul,  179. 
Octavius,  M. :  tribune,  156. 


Odenatus :    prince    of   Palmyra,  291; 

his  father,  292;   aids  Rome,  292. 
Oder,  R. :   332. 
Odovacar  :  grants  land  to  Euric,  339; 

rules  Italy,  341. 
Olybrius :  Emperor,  337. 
Opimius,  L. :   consul,  165. 
Origin  of  Alexandria:   282. 
Orleans  :  besieged  by  Attila,  ;^23- 
Ormuzd:   289. 
Orodes :  king  Parthia,  202. 
Ossipago :   22. 
Ostia:    colony,   12,   82;    reception  of 

Great    Mother,   129;    harbor    filled 

up,  251. 
Ostrogoths:    contrast  with  Visigoths, 

318;   prostrated  by  Huns,  318;   in 

Phrygia,   320 ;    relations    to    Attila, 

332;   into  Pannonia,  335. 
Otho  :   Emperor,  255. 
Ovidius  Naso,  P. :  poet,  240. 

Padus,  R.  (Po)  :  4,  5,  8,  116,  117,  169, 

293- 
Palatina  (tribe):  33. 
Palilia  :   festival  of  Pales,  25. 
Palmyra:  prince  of,   291;   city,  292; 

fall,  294. 
Panormos :   town  in  Sicily,  108. 
Pannonia :     conquered    by    Tiberius, 

235;   Vandals  in,  324;    Ostrogoths 

in,  335- 

Pansa :  see  Vibius. 

Pantheon  :   239. 

Pajiinian :  jurist,  279. 

Papirius  Carbo,  Cn. :  revolutionary 
leader,  179. 

Papirius  Cursor,  L. :  dictator,  86. 

Paris:   312;    capital  Syagrius,  339. 

Parthians:  independent,  132;  exten- 
sion of  empire,  135;  war,  202;  in- 
vaded by  Trajan,  262;  overthrown, 
289,  291. 

Pastoureaux :   295. 

Paulus  :  see  ^'Emilius. 

Paulus :  jurist,  279. 

Pedum  :  annexed  to  Rome,  80. 

Pelasgians :   46. 

Pergamus:  allied  to  Rome,  129;  in- 
dependent, 132;  war  with  Antio- 
chus,  134;  receives  territory,  135; 
annexed  to  Rome,  146. 


INDEX   OF  PROPER   NAMES. 


361 


Pericles:  authority,  162. 

Persians  :  new  empire,  289-29 1 ;  con- 
test with  Juhan,  313-314. 

Perseus  :  king  of  Macedonia;  war  with 
Rome,  136. 

Persius :   poet,  254. 

Pertinax :   Emperor,  276. 

Pescennius  Niger :   277. 

Pessinus :  worship  .  of  the  Great 
Mother,  129. 

Pharnaces:  king  of  Pontus,  216. 

Pharsalus:  battle,  B.C.  48,  216. 

Philip  v.:  king  of  Macedonia;  war 
with  Rome,  123;  Second  Macedo- 
nian War,  132;  ally  of  Rome,  134; 
disloyal,  136. 

Philip  the  Arabian  :   288. 

Philip:   false,  142. 

Philippi :  battle,  B.C.  42,  228. 

Philo :  see  Publilius. 

Picenum  :  annexed  to  Rome,  93. 

Picts:   335. 

Pinarii :  worship  of  Hercules,  90. 

Piso :   see  Calpurnius. 

Placentia:  Latin  colony,  112;  in  Sec- 
ond Punic  War,  117;  battle,  A.D. 
69,  255. 

Placidia  :  marries  Ataulf,  327;  marries 
Constantius,  327;  mother  of  Valen- 
tinian  III.,  327;   regent,  329. 

Plautus:  dramatist:    114,  141. 

PUnius  Secundus:   historian,  258. 

Plinius  Secundus,  his  nephew:   265. 

Po :  see  Padus. 

Polentia:   323, 

Pollio :  see  Asinius. 

Pollux :    36,  96. 

Polybius:   Greek  historian,  35. 

Polycarp :  martyr,  272. 

Pometia :  conquered  by  Rome,  73,  79. 

Pomona :  goddess,  23. 

Pompeii :   destruction,  258. 

Pompeius  Magnus,  Cn. :  commander 
in  Social  War,  174;  joins  Sulla, 
180;  commands  against  Sertorius, 
193;  against  Spartacus,  194;  against 
Pirates,  195;  against  Mithradates, 
195-197;  forms  triumvirate,  200; 
receives  Spain,  202;  breach  with 
Caesar,  210;  Civil  War,  213;  de- 
feated at  Pharsalus,  216;  death, 
216;   theatre,  222. 


Pompeius,  Cn.,  his  son  :  defeated,  219. 

Pompeius,  Sex.,  his  brother  :  defeated, 
219;   death,  228. 

Pontius,  C. :   Samnite  commander,  'i']. 

Pontius  Telesinus:  Samnite  com- 
mander, 180. 

Pontus:  independent,  132;  Mithra- 
datic  War,  176. 

Poppcea  Sabina,  wife  of  Nero  :   253. 

Porcius  Cato,  M. :  character,  139; 
opposed  to  Greek  culture,  140; 
works,  141;  basilica,  141 ;  per- 
suades-to  destruction  of  Carthage, 
143;  compared  with  Curius,  150; 
recommends  grazing,  152. 

Porcius  Cato,  M.  (the  younger)  : 
commands  at  Utica,  217;  death,  218. 

Porsena,  Lars :  king  of  Clusium,  35. 

Porta  scelerata :   51. 

Postumius,  A. :  dictator,  65, 

Potitii :  worship  of  Hercules,  90. 

Prteneste:  I>atin  town,  53;  indepen- 
dent, 80;   siege,  180. 

Probus  :  Emperor,  288,  297. 

Propertius,  Sex.  Aurelius :  poet,  241. 

Propontis :   309. 

Provence :   339. 

Prusias:  king  of  Bithynia,  135. 

Ptolemies:  in  Egypt,  131. 

Ptolemy:  king  of  Egypt,  221. 

Ptolemy  Dionysus:  king  of  Egypt, 
216. 

Publilius  Philo,  Q. :   77. 

Publilius  Volero :   53. 

Puteoli :   port,  251. 

Pydna:  battle,  B.C.  168,  136. 

Pyrenees:   291. 

Pyrrhus :  w^ar,  96-98. 

Quadi:   associated   with    Marcomani, 

273- 

Quinctius  Cincinnatus,  L. :   55. 

Quinctius,  Koeso :   55. 

Quinctius  Flaminius,  T. :  gains  battle 
of  Cynoscephalie,  132;  Greek  cul- 
ture, 141. 

Quindecimviri  sacris  faciundis  :  36. 

Quintilianus :   rhetorician,  265. 

Quintilius  Varus,  L. :   defeated,  236. 

Quirinal  Hill:  Sabine  settlement,  15, 
17;   religious  ceremony,  71. 

Quirinus:  23. 


362 


INDEX   OF  PROPER  NAMES. 


Rxtia:   conquered  by  Augustus,  235. 

Ranines  (tribe)  :    17. 

Ravenna:  Etruscan  town,  6;  Ccesar's 
camp,  213;  becomes  capital  of  the 
West,  325,  327. 

Reate  :   Sabine  town,  94. 

Red  Sea:    i. 

Regillus,  Lake  :   battle,  36. 

Regulus :  see  Atilius. 

Rhadagais :   323  ff. 

Rhegium  :  seized  by  mercenaries,  106. 

Rhine,  R. :  conquests  of  CKSar,  234; 
Alamanni  on,  311-312;  left  bank 
held  by  Germans,  317;  crossed  by 
Vandals,  324 ;  Alamanni  and  Franks, 

332. 

Rhodus,  Id.:  republic,  132;  war  with 
Antiochus,  134;  receives  territory, 
135;  gains  commerce,  142;  gov- 
ernment, 187;  independent,  229; 
residence  of  Tiberius,  233. 

Rhone,  R. :  route  into  Gaul,  2,  205 ; 
eastern  boundary  of  empire  of 
Euric,  339. 

Ricimer,  Count,  grandson  of  Wallia : 
defeats  Geiseric,  '},^^',  rule,  338; 
death,  338. 

Robigo :  26. 

Romulus :    14. 

Romulus  Augustulus  :  Emperor,  337, 
340. 

Rostra:   83;   removed,  239. 

Rubicon,  R. :   crossed  by  Ciesar,  213. 

Rufmus:   321,  323. 

Rufus:  see  Sulpicius. 

Sabini :  ii;  seizure  of  maidens,  26; 
wars,  43,  53,  56. 

Sacred  Mount :    43. 

Saguntum  :  captured  by  Hannibal,  116. 

Salii :    23. 

Sallustius  Crispus,  C. :  historian,  203. 

Salona :   301. 

Samnites:  4;  capture  of  Capua,  67; 
treaty  with  Rome,  79;  First  War, 
79;  Second  War,  84-88;  Third 
War,  92-94;   uprising,  174. 

Sapor:   291,  292. 

Sapor  II.:   313. 

Sardinia :  3 ;  conquered  by  Carthage, 
6;  trade  with  Rome,  79;  seized  by 
Rome,  no;  taken  by  Geiseric,  338. 


Sassanian  monarchs  :  persecutions  by, 
290. 

Sassanidoe:   289-290. 

Saturnalia :   26. 

Saturninus:   see  Appuleius. 

Saturnus :    23,  26. 

Savoy:   Burgundians.in,  332. 

Scoevola:   see  JSIucius. 

Scipio :  see  Cornelius. 

Scots:   335. 

Scribonius  Curio,  C. :  defeated  in 
Africa,  213. 

Seine,  R. :  333. 

Sejanus :   see  yElius. 

Seleucia  :   Parthian  capital,  270. 

Seleucid^:  kings  of  Asia,  131;  col- 
lapse of  empire,  135. 

Seleucus  Nicator :   king  of  Asia,  131. 

Sempronius  Gracchus,  Ti. :  protects 
Scipio,  140;    marries  Cornelia,  154. 

Sempronius  Gracchus,  Ti.,  his  son: 
reforms  and  death,  154-156. 

Sempronius  Gracchus,  C,  his  brother: 
reforms  and  death,  158,  162-165. 

Sempronius  Longus,  Ti. :   consul,  116. 

Sena  Gallica :   8. 

Seneca,  L.  Annteus :  philosopher, 
252,  254. 

Sentinum :   battle,  B.C.  295,  92. 

Septimius  Severus :  Emperor,  276, 
287;  arch,  280;  provincial  system, 
298. 

Sequani :   Gallic  tribe,  206. 

Serena,  wife  of  Stilicho  :   326. 

Sergius  Catilina,  L. :  conspiracy, 
198-200. 

Sertorius,  Q. :   war  in  Spain,  191-193. 

Servilius  Glaucia,  C. :  attempt  at  revo- 
lution, 171. 

Servius  TuUius  :    king  of  Rome,  31. 

Severi:   276,  303. 

Severus:   301,  302,  304. 

Signia:   colony,  35,  45. 

Sicily:  3;  occupied  by  Carthaginians, 
6;  trade  with  Rome,  79;  ceded  to 
Rome,  109;  province  enlarged, 
124;   taken  in  part  by  Geiseric,  '^1^. 

Sicinius  Dentatus :    59. 

Silius  Italicus:   poet,  266. 

Sinnessa :   Roman  colony,  82. 

Smyrna:  city  in  Asia,  146;  persecu- 
tion, 272. 


INDEX   OF  PROPER  NAMES, 


363 


Solon:  laws,  31;  abolition  of  laws  of 
debt,  41. 

Spain:  2;  trade  with  Rome  forbid- 
den, 79;  ceded  to  Rome,  127;  wars, 
136;  war  of  Sertorius,  191 ;  gov- 
erned by  Q-esar,  201 ;  reduced  by 
Caesar,  213;  ravaged  by  Franks, 
291;  part  of  rival  empire,  292; 
occupied  by  Vandals,  324,  325; 
Visigothic  kingdom,  339. 

Spartacus:   gladiator,  193. 

Statius :  poet,  266. 

Stilicho:  minister  of  Honorius,  321, 
322-325 ;  victories,  323,  324;  death, 

325. 
Stilo  :  see  .'Elius. 
Strassburg:   battle,  312. 
Suburana  (tribe)  :   IZ- 
Suevi :    occupy   northwestern    Spain, 

324,  330.  339- 

Sulla:   see  Cornelius. 

Sulpicius,  Rufus,  P. :  propositions,  177. 

Suovetaurilia:   26. 

Sutrium:  Latin  colony,  68;  besieged 
by  Etruscans,  88. 

Syagrius:    339. 

Syncretism :   283. 

Syphax:   king  of  Numidia,  126,  127. 

Syracus3e:  aided  by  Pyrrhus,  98;  in- 
dependent, III;   captured,  123. 

Syria:  kingdom,  136;  conquered,  196. 

Syrtis  (Bay)  :   2. 

Tacitus,  P.  Cornelius :  historian,  264. 

Tacitus:    Emperor,  288. 

Tamerlane :   332. 

Tarentum:  city  of  Magna  Graecia,  9; 
war  with  Rome,  96;  spoils,  103; 
revolts,  123;    captured,  124. 

Tarquinian  dynasty: '14,  29;  expul- 
sion, 39. 

Tarquinii :   Etruscan  city,  6. 

Tarquinius  Priscus,  L. :  king  of  Rome, 
15,  31 ;    reforms,  29. 

Tarquinius  Superbus,  L. :  king  of 
Rome,  29;  Latin  empire,  34;  pur- 
chase of  Sibylline  books,  36, 

Tartessus:     Phoenician    colony,    104, 

"5- 

Tatius,  T. :  king  of  Rome,  15. 

Taurus,  Mt. :    135. 

Terentia:  wife  of  Cicero,  189. 


Terentilius  Harsa,  C. :  54. 
Terentius:  dramatist,  141. 
Terentius  Varso,  C. :   commanded  at 

Canna;,  121. 
Terracina:    captured    by    Rome,  67; 

Roman  colony,  82. 
Tertullian  of  Africa :   282. 
Tetricus:    pretender,  292;    captured, 

295- 

Teutones :  invasion,  168-170. 

Teutonic  race :   168. 

Teutoburg  Forest :  battle,  A.D.  9,  236. 

Thapsus:  battle,  B.C.  46,  217. 

Theodoric :  king  of  Visigoths,  328; 
attacks  Attila,  333;    death,  -^t^t^. 

Theodosius  the  Great :  proscribes 
paganism,  306,  315;  succeeds 
Valens,  314,  319-322;  character, 
320. 

Theodosius  IL  :   322. 

Thermopylae:  battle,  B.C.  191,  134. 

Thespis:   114. 

Thessalonica :  Pompey's  government, 
213;  centre  of  government  under 
Theodosius,  320;  massacres  under 
Theodosius,  321. 

Tiber,  R. :  4. 

Tiberius,  Emperor:  divorced,  189; 
son  of  Livia,  233;  conquest  of 
Pannonia,  etc.,  235;   Emperor,  245. 

TibuUus,  Albius  :   poet,  241. 

Tibur:  Latin  town,  17;  neutrality, 
53;  independent,  80;  refuge  of 
pipers,  91. 

Ticinus,  R. :  battle,  B.C.  218,  117. 

Tigellinus  :   freedman  of  Nero,  252. 

Tigranes :  king  of  Armenia,  1 76. 

Tigris:  crossed  by  Julian,  313. 

Titles  (tribe)  :   17. 

Titus,  Emperor:  war  against  Jews, 
256,  257;    arch,  258;    reign,  258. 

Torquatus :  see  Manlius. 

Toulouse :   339,  340. 

Tournay :   340. 

Trajanus,  M.  Ulpius :  Emperor,  261- 
268;  conquests,  261,  262;  perse- 
cution of  Christians,  267;  forum, 
280;  his  conquests  a  source  of 
weakness,  292. 

Transpadani :  receives  citizenship,  214. 

Trasimenus,  L. :   battle,  B.C.  217,  119. 

Trebia,  R. :  battle,  B.C.  218,  I17. 


364 


IXDEX   OF  PROPER   NAMES. 


Trerus,  R. :    ii. 

Trifauum  :   battle,  B.C.  342,  80. 

Tullius  Cicero,  M. :  divorce,  189; 
writer,  191 ;  consul,  197;  charac- 
ter, 198;  banished,  201;  return, 
201 ;  speeches  against  Antony,  227; 
death,  228. 

Tullius  llostilius:   king  of  Rome,  15, 

Tusculum :  Latin  town,  17,  45 ;  aids 
Rome,  56;   annexed  by  Rome,  73. 

Tyrrhenian  Sea:  3;  enclosed  by 
islands,  no. 

Ulfilas:  318. 

Ulpian  :  praetorian  praefect,  279,  282. 
Umbrians  :  4,  5  ;  war  with  Rome,  92. 
Utica  :   Roman  headquarters,  143. 

Valens:  receives  Eastern  praefecture, 

314;  grants  lands  to  Visigoths,  319; 

defeated  at  Adrianople,  319. 
Valentinian :   310;    Emperor,  314. 
Valentinian  II. :   314;    death,  320. 
Valentinian  III. :  322;  Age  of,  329  ff.; 

assassinated,  335. 
Valerian:    Emperor,    288;    captured, 

291, 
Valerius  Catullus,  Q. :  poet,  203. 
Valerius  Corvus,  M. :  fight  with  Gaul, 

78. 
Valerius  Flaccus,  L. :  interrex,  182. 
Valerius  Messalla,  M. :  general,  242. 
Valerius,  P, :  consul,  B.C.  460,  56, 
Valerius,  ]SI. :   consul,  B.C.  449,  59. 
Vandals:    colonists    in    empire,  317; 

invasion,  324;    take  possession    of 

Spain,    324;    in  Africa,    329,  330; 

empire    of,  338;    in  possession    of 

Africa,  339. 
Varius,  Q. :   commission,  173. 
Varro :  see  Terentius. 
Varus :   see  Quintilius. 
Veil:   Etruscan    town,  6;    wars   with 

Rome,  II,  35;   with  the  Fabii,  51; 

siege  and  capture,  67-70. 
Velitrce:  Volscian  town,  53;   annexed 

to  Rome,  80. 
Venetians  :  5 ;  invade  Gallic  territory, 

72. 
Venice:  foundation,  334, 
Ventidius,  P. :  war  against   the  Par- 

thians,  228. 


Venusia:  Latin  colony,  92;  escape 
of  Varro,  122;  neighborhood  of 
Hannibal,  125;   incident,  149. 

Vercelke:  battle,  B.C.  loi,  169. 

Vercingetorix :   Gallic  chief,  208,  209. 

Verginius :  governor  of  Germany, 
254;    supports  Vespasian,  256. 

Vergilius  Maro,  P. :   poet,  239. 

Verona:  the  Cenomani,  117;  Alaric 
defeated  at,  323. 

Verus,  L. :   Emperor,  270. 

Vespasianus,  T.  Flavius:  Emperor, 
255-258. 

\  esta :   24. 

Vesuvius,  Mt. :  retreat  of  Spartacus, 
194;    eruption,  258,  265. 

Vibius  Pansa,  C. :   consul,  227. 

Vicus  Tuscus :   37. 

Vindex :   rebellion,  254. 

Vindobona  (  Vienna)  :   273. 

Vipsanius  Agrippa  jM.  :  233;  built 
Pantheon,  239;   statesman,  241. 

Virgil :  see  Vergilius. 

Virginia :   59. 

Visigoths:  invasion,  318-320;  con- 
verted to  Arian  Christianity,  318; 
passage  of  the  Danube,  319;  in 
provinces  south  of  Danube,  320; 
kingdom,  328;  granted  territory  on 
Bay  of  Biscay,  328;  in  southwestern 
Gaul,  330,  332;  against  Attila,  333; 
dominions  under  Euric,  339. 

Vitellius,  A.:    Emperor,  255. 

Volaterrae  :   Etruscan  city,  6. 

Volero  :   see  Publilius. 

Volscians:    ii;   w-ars,  43,  53,  73. 

Volscian  Mts. :   35. 

Volsinii :   Etruscan  town,  6. 

Volutina :   23. 

Vulcan :    22. 

Vulturnus,  R. :  4;  boundary  of  Latium, 
82. 

Wallia :  king  of  Visigoths,  328;  leads 

Goths  into  Gaul,  328;   death,  328. 
West  Goths :  see  Visigoths. 

Zama:  battle,  B.C.  202,  126. 

Zeno :   Emperor,  337. 

Zenobia  :  288;    occupies  throne,  292; 

character,  294;   capture,  294. 
Zoroaster;   289,  290. 


INDEX   OF  ANTIQUITIES. 


abdication:   301. 
addict  us  :  41. 
sediles:   62;   curule,  76. 
aerarius :   129. 

ager  Rornanus :  original  extent,  17; 
embraces  course  of  Tiber,  17;  an- 
nexation of  Gabii,  34;  extension, 
65,  73;  annexation  of  C^re,  78;  of 
Capua,  79;  of  Sabine  territory,  93; 
composition,  99. 
agrarian  laws:  of  Cassius,  48;  of 
Flaminius,  112;  of  Gracchus,  155; 
of  Drusus,  165. 
agriculture:    Roman,    100,    149-152; 

Cato's  treatise,  141. 
Agri  Deciunates  :  259,  260, 
alimentations :  263. 
alliance :  triple,  44. 
allies  :    100;   stand  with  Rome  against 
Hannibal,    120;     demand     citizen- 
ship, 166,  173;   Social  War,  174. 
alphabet :    36. 

ambassadors :   privileges,  70. 
amphitheatre :   258,  275. 
aqueducts:  90,  94;   of  Claudius,  251. 
arch:    30,    239;     of    Titus,    258;     of 
Septimius    Severus,   280;    of  Con- 
stantine,  302. 
architecture:   Roman,  238-239,  258; 

of  Ravenna,  325. 
army  :  see  military  affairs, 
art:   27,102;   of  Augustan  Age,  239; 
of  Pompeii,  258;   of  Age  of  Trajan, 
266. 
as  :  102, 

assemblies;  62;  powers,  112,  178; 
meeting,  l6l;  loss  of  powers,  232; 
end,  280.  See  plebeian  assembly, 
concilium  tributum  plebis,  comitia 
centuriata,,  comitia  curia  ta,  co- 
mitia tributa. 
assembly:  plebeian,  44;    its   powers, 


50,  62;    organized   by  tribes,    53; 

powers    enlarged,    77;     legislative 

power,  95;    restricted,  184. 
assignment  of  land  :  49. 
astricti  glebae  :  264. 
Aternian-Tarpeian  law  :  see  law. 
auguries:    190. 

augurs:   20,26;   plebeian,  76. 
Augustus  :  title  under  Diocletian,  298. . 
Aurelian  law  :   see  law. 
auspices:      20;      disregarded,     108; 

meaning,  190. 

Barrack  Emperors :   287. 

basilica:    141,238,302. 

baths  :   of  Caracalla,  280. 

bishop :   283,  307. 

bounds  of  empire :  see  empire. 

building:  by  Tarquins,  30;  after  de- 
struction of  Rome,  72;  by  Augus- 
tus, 238;  by  Caligula,  249;  by 
Claudius,  250;  by  Nero,  253;'  by 
Domitian,  258;  under  the  Severi, 
279-280;  under  Constantine,  302; 
at  Ravenna,  325. 

bureaucracy :   299. 

burying:   96. 

Caeritan  rights :   78, 

Caesar :  general  appellation  for  Em- 
peror, 260;  office  created  by  Dio- 
cletian, 298. 

calendar:   27;   reform,  219. 

Canuleian  law  :  see  law. 

capitol :   30. 

Capitoline  Triad  :   7,  23,  30. 

cattle  :  for  money,  57. 

cavalry  :   see  military  affairs. 

censors:  appoint  senators,  19;  es- 
tablishment of  office,  64;  plebeian, 
77;  office  suspended,  183;  restored, 
195- 


366 


INDEX  OF  ANTIQUITIES. 


census :   64,  195. 

centuriatc  assembly  :  see  comitia  cen- 
tiiriata. 

centuries  :   32 ;    military,  60. 

Christianity:  under  Nero,  253;  under 
Trajan,  267;  under  Marcus  Aurelius, 
271;  under  the  Severi,  282-283; 
under  Diocletian,  300;  under  Con- 
stantine,  304-307;  under  Julian, 
313;   final  establishment,  314-315. 

chronology:   importance,  13. 

church:  complete  organization,  282; 
theological  system,  328. 

citizenship:  rights,  63;  contest,  166, 
173;  granted  to  Italians,  175;  to 
Transpadani,  214;  to  all  provin- 
cials, 281. 

city:  ancient,  159;  time  of  Trajan, 
263;   fourth  century,  310. 

civilization :   Etruscan,  6. 

civitas  :  160. 

civitates  foederatae  :  see  allies. 

clans:  18;  land,  19;  serfs,  20;  power, 
21. 

classes :   of  Servius  Tullius,  32. 

clients:  20;  family  worship,  25; 
joined  with  patricians,  50;  rights 
of  property,  60;   freedmen,  253. 

clipeus  :   70. 

cohorts  :   69,  1 70. 

coinage:  gold,  218;  right  of,  256; 
depreciation,  282;  reformed  by 
Constantine,  303. 

collegiality :   89. 

coloni  :  264. 

colonies:  Greek,  9;  Ostia,  12,  15;  of 
Tarquin,  35;  Latin,  45,  49,  73; 
Roman,  82,  99;  Junonia,  145,  164; 
of  C.  Gracchus,  164;  of  Drusus, 
165;  /Elia  Capitolina,  258;  of  Tra- 
jan, 261 ;   German,  317. 

Colosseum :   258. 

column :  of  M^nius,  83;  of  Duilius,  107. 

comitia  centuriata :  instituted,  34; 
powers,  39,  60,  62;  reform,  113. 
See  assemblies. 

comilia  ciiriata :  19;  in  republic, 
39,  62. 

comitia  tribiita  :  62. 

commerce:  Italian,  9;  of  Rome,  12, 
22;  rights  (commercium),  21,  63; 
decay,  39,  42;   with  Carthage,  79; 


of  Rhodes  and  Delos,  142;  of  an- 
tiquity, 187. 

coitciliuin  trihutum  plebis  :  62.  See 
assembly :   plebeian. 

confederacy:  Latin,  10;  under  Tar- 
quins,  30;  relations  of  Rome  to, 
34;  alliance  with  Rome,  44;  dis- 
solved, 80;  name  extended,  81; 
German,  285;   PVanks,  340. 

constitution:  patrician,  18-22;  of 
Servius  Tullius,  31;  Roman,  61, 
95;  of  Sulla,  181-185;  of  Augustus, 
230  ff. ;   of  biocletian,  296  ff. 

consiilaris  :  63. 

consuls:  38,  61;  appoint  senators, 
19;  privileges,  63;  plebeian,  75; 
age,  168. 

coniibiiim  :  see  intermarriage. 

corn :   see  distributions. 

council :   of  Nicoea,  307. 

cremation  :   96. 

crucifixion  :    105. 

ciiratores,  to  inspect  accounts  :   263. 

cia-ia  :  310. 

curiae:   18. 

ciirialcs  :  310. 

currency  :  depreciation,  295 ;  reform 
by  Constantine,  302. 

curu^c  chair:   37,  63,  65. 

curule  offices  :  65  n.  I ;  disqualification 
for,  183. 

debauchery,  263. 

debt :  law,  41 ;  relief,  75 ;  in  last  cen- 
tury of  republic,  187;  relief  by 
Caesar,  215. 

decemvirate :   58. 

decorum  :    Roman  quality,  252. 

deciiriones  :  310. 

Defensor  Civilatis  :  310. 

delation:   246;   under  Domitian,  259. 

demagogues:  74;  Flaminius,  112; 
Saturninus  and  Glaucia,  171. 

denarius:   102. 

despotism :  system  under  Diocletian, 
298. 

devotion :   92. 

dictator:  ^%\  right  of  appeal,  59; 
perpetual,  220. 

diocese  :    299,  308. 

distributions  of  corn:  148,  164,  173; 
reduced,  218. 


INDEX  OF  ANTIQUITIES. 


367 


divorce:   1 88,  233. 

dome  :   239. 

drainage:    of  Rome,  30,  96;    of  the 

Pontine  Marshes,  loi ;   of  the  P^u- 

cine  Lake,  251. 
drama:  germs,  114;   Grecian,  141. 
dyarchy,  231;   end,  280. 

economic  decay :  263. 

Edict:  of  Caracalla,  281. 

elections:    161 ;   time,  212. 

elephants  :  in  warfare,  97. 

empire  of  Rome  :  of  the  Tarquins,  29; 
of  Augustus,  231;  boundaries,  233, 
235,  268,  293,  330-332,  335;  at  its 
height,  263;  division,  321 ;  collapse, 
Zli^^  VcH^  339;  disintegration,  338; 
fall,  340;  survival,  341.  See  Ager 
Roma  tins. 

eponymous  consuls :   222. 

epulones  :  76. 

equestrian  order:    163,  166;    census, 

195- 
equites  :  eqtio  publico,  33;   eqiio  pri- 

vato,  70,  163. 
equiini  vender e:   128. 
estates  {latifundia)  :   loi,  149. 

family:  worship,  24;  law,  60. 
festivals:  25;   of  Ceres,  122. 
fetiales  :  26. 
finances :   263,  282. 
fines  regulated:   57. 
Jlamen:  23. 
foederati  :  320. 
formulas:  published,  91. 
freedmen  :  21;   in  Senate,  89;  in  em- 
pire, 253. 

games :   26. 
gentes :  see  clans. 
Genucian  law  :  see  law. 
gladiatorial  contests:    189,  193,  275, 
gold  coinage :   218. 

hastati  :  70,  127, 170;  centurions,  171. 
hegemony  of  Rome :  in  Latium,  30, 

34,  45'  8o- 
hills  of  Rome  :   16. 
history:  its  character,  13, 
honores  :  63. 
Hortensian  law :  see  law. 


Icilian  law  :  see  law. 

Ides:  2.12. 

imperator :   title,  219. 

imperiwn  :  62;  prorogatum,  no,  125. 

industry :  Italian,  9,  loi ;  collapse, 
149;  defects,  187;  effects  of  col- 
lapse, 263,  264. 

insignia  :  royal,  37;    of  consuls,  63. 

intermarriage:  rights  {cojizibijini'), 
21;    plebeians,  61 ;    foreigners,  221. 

inter  rex,  interregmim  :  20,  76,  182. 

j tiger  117JI  :  75. 

Julian  law  :   see  law. 

Julian- Papinian  law:  see  law. 

jurors:    equestrian,    163;     senatorial, 

184;   of  both  orders,  194;   Caesar's 

reform,  218. 
jurists:   under  Severi,  279. 
jus  auxilia  :  44,  62. 
jus  exili  :   100. 
jus  imaginnm  :  65. 
justice:  criminal,  38,  60;   permanent 

courts,  184;   prosecution,  246. 

Kale7ids  :  27. 

kings:  Roman,  15;  elective,  19;  pos- 
sessed auspices,  20;  hatred  of  name, 
222. 

knights  :  see  equestrian  order. 

land:  held  by  clans,  19;  private  prop- 
erty, 33;  public,  47;  its  aggrega- 
tion, 149;  grants  by  Gracchus,  155, 
164;  tithe-lands,  260;  occupied  on 
condition  of  military  service  by 
Germans,  286.  See  also  Ager  Roma- 
72 us,  agrarian  laws. 

law  :  Aternian-Tarpeian,  B.C.  454,  57; 
Aurelian,  B.C.  70,  194;  Canuleian, 
B.C.  445,  63;  Flaminian,  B.C.  232, 
III;  Genucian,  B.C.  342,  78;  Hor- 
tensian, 94;  Icilian,  B.C.  456,  57; 
Julian,  B.C.  90,  175;  JuHan-Papi- 
nian,  B.C.  430,  58;  Julian  {Ahoii- 
cipalis),  B.C.  45,  175;  Manihan, 
B.C.  66,  196;  Plautian-Papinian, 
B.C.  90,  175;  Publilian  (of  Philo, 
B.C.  339),  77;  (of  Volero,  B.C.  471), 
53;  Sempronian,  B.C.  133,  155; 
B.C.  123,  163;  Sulpician,  B.C.  88, 
177;  Terentilian,  B.C.  461,  54,  58; 


368 


INDEX  OF  ANTIQUITIES. 


Villian,  B.C.  iSo,  169.    See  agrarian 

laws, 
laws:    passage,    53;    customary,   54; 

codification,  55,  58. 
lectio  senatus  :  64. 
legati :     governing     provinces,    202, 

232. 
legion:   69,127;   opposed  to  phalanx, 

lictors:  37;  of  consuls,  38;  of  praetors, 
202. 

literature,  Roman:  beginnings,  113; 
of  republic,  191,  203;  of  Augus- 
tan Age,  239;  of  Nero's  reign,  254; 
elder  Pliny,  258;  Silver  Age,  264- 
266. 

literature,  Greek  :    140. 

literature :  patristic,  328. 

lociipletes  :  32. 

Lupercalia :   220. 

luperci  :  26. 

lustrum :  64.     • 

maenianae  :  ^i"^. 

magistrates,  38,  61 ;  plebeian,  76; 
city,  161;  age,  169,  197;  loss  of 
'power,  232. 

Manilian  law :  see  law. 

maniples  :   69,  1 70. 

maritime  empire :   of  Carthage,  104. 

master  of  horse  :  86. 

mausoleum  of  Augustus:   239. 

migrations  :  commencement,  168,  273; 
of  western  Germans,  2S5. 

military  affairs :  situation  of  Rome, 
12;  early  army,  20;  reform  of  Ser- 
vius  Tullius,  32;  service,  42;  re- 
form of  Camillus,  68-70;  ofScipio, 
126;  of  Marius,  170;  military  rule, 
280;  incorporations  of  Germans 
into  army,  286;  Diocletian's  re- 
forms, 299. 

martyrdom  :  of  Ignatius  of  Antioch, 
268;  of  Justin,  272;  of  Polycarp, 
272. 

money:   27;   values,  58;   silver,  102. 

mortgages :   263. 

municipalities:  in  Gaul,  209;  eco- 
nomic distress,  263;  under  the  later 
empire,  310. 

municipal  system :  99,  161;  extended 
over  Italy,   175;   law,  218;    failure 


of    self-government,    263;     oligar- 
chies, 310. 

7niinicipitan  :  82,  99. 

myth:    14;    Roman,  23. 

navy :    106. 

Neo-platonism :  283. 

new  man :    138. 

nexus  :  41. 

nobility:   63,65;   power,  138. 

novae  tabulae  :   188. 

novus  hoino  :   138. 

occupation   of    land:    47;    plebeian, 

75;   continued,  151. 
oppidum  :   1 60. 
optimates  :   1 66. 
ordis  terraruf/i  veteribus  notus  :   I. 

P^S^  '  ZZ'y   of  cities,  161. 

panem  et  circenses  :  222. 

parties:   166,  186. 

Partnership  Emperors :   297. 

pastures:   75. 

pater-familias :   18;    power  lessened, 

60. 
patres  :  19. 

patria  potestas  :  see  pater-familias. 
patricians:    18;     power    in   republic, 

;^S;    occupation  of  land,  48;    loss 

of  privileges,  60,  77. 
patrons:   21. 
peasants:   Roman,  40;  property,  1 00 ; 

decay,  149,  154;  Italian,  174;  poor- 
relief  to,  263;   wars,  295, 
pedarii  :  95. 
persecution:  cause,  267,  268;   under 

Marcus  Aurelius,  271,  272;   under 

Diocletian,    300;     of    heretics    by 

Gratian,  314,  315. 
pestilence :  time  of  Marcus  Aurelius, 

270. 
phalanx:  69;   Macedonian,  133. 
philology:    191. 
philosophy:   Greek,  190. 
pilum  :   127. 
pirates :   112,  195. 
plague :  see  pestilence. 
Plautian-Papirian  law  :  see  law. 
plebeians:     21;     civil    rights,  31;    in 

republic,  39;   receive  tribunes,  43; 

receive    the    Aventine,    57;    clans, 


INDEX   OF  ANTIQUITIES. 


369 


60;     intermarriage,    61;    organiza- 
tion, 62;  equality  of  rights,  75.   See 
also  magistrates  and  assemblies. 
plebiscita  :  63. 

political  system  :  German,  284. 
pomcerium  :  210. 

pontifex   maximus :  head  of  Roman 
religion,   218;   residence,   224;   im- 
perial title,  306;   papal  title,  306; 
relinquished  by  Gratian,  315. 
pontifices  :  26;   plebeian,  76, 
poor-relief:   263. 
popiilares  :   166. 
posse ssio  :  47, 
priEfects :   232. 
prcefectures :      under    republic,     99; 

under  Constantine,  308. 
Praetorian  Cohorts :    232;    sell  throne, 
276;   dissolved  by  Septimius  Seve- 
rus,  280. 
praetor  :   Latin,  45 ;   administration  of 
law,  48;    office  established,  76;  ad- 
ditional, 1 10;  courts,  141 ;  by  Sulla's 
laws,    183;    peregrinus,    184;    tir- 
banus,  iit^. 
Prsetorian  Prefect :  232,  279;  becomes 
chief    minister   of  Emperor,    281; 
under  Constantine,  308. 
principes   (soldiers):    70,    127,   170; 

centurions,  1 71. 
princeps  :  231. 
princeps  senatiis  :  231. 
proconsul :   232, 
procurator :  255. 
proletariits  :  152. 
prominciamentos  :  297. 
propraetor :    1 10. 
proscription:    of   Sulla,    181;    of  the 

triumvirs,  227,  228. 
provinces:  Sicily,  109;  Sardinia  and 
Corsica,  no;  Spain,  127;  lUyricum, 
136;  Macedonia,  142;  Africa,  145; 
Asia,  146;  Transalpine  Gaul,  164; 
CiUcia  and  Cyprus,  196;  Bithynia, 
196;  Syria,  196;  Cisalpine  Gaul, 
215;  Mffisia,  234;  Raetia,  Noricum, 
Pannonia,  235;  Germany,  236; 
Britain,  251;  Dacia,  261,  284; 
Arabia  Petrsea,  262;  surrendered 
by  Hadrian,  268;  assimilation  of 
Italy  and  the,  280. 
provincial  system :  iio;  its  evils,  147; 


governors,  183;  under  empire,  232; 
edict  of  Caracalla,  280;  reorgani- 
zation under  Diocletian,  298;  under 
Constantine,  309. 

public ani  :   153,  164. 

Publilian  law  :  see  law. 

qiiaestio7ies  pei'peticae  :   1 84. 

quaestor :     assistant    of     consul,     44; 

magistrate,  61 ;   duties,  65. 
qtdncttnx  :  70,  126. 
quindecimviri  sacris  faciundis  :  36; 

plebeian,  75. 
quinquereme :   106. 

races  in  Italy :  4. 

regia  :  224. 

regimen  nioriim  :  64. 

religion:  Etruscan,  6;  Roman,  22- 
27;  of  Fabian  gens,  71;  innova- 
tions, 90;  Carthaginian,  105;  in 
last  century  of  repu^:)lic,  189;  of 
Emperor,  237;  Christian,  267;  sun- 
worship,  278;  under  Severi,  282- 
284;  of  Zoroaster,  289;  of  Sas- 
sanidae,  290;  under  Julian,  313; 
under  Gratian,  314;  under Theodo-' 
si  us,  315. 

repetundae  :  court,  148;  judges,  1 63; 
court,  184. 

roads:  Appian,  90;  Flaminian,  112; 
Latin,  4,  53. 

rogation :   54. 

Roma  Quadrafa  :  16. 

rostra  :  83 ;   removed  by  Caesar,  239. 

routes  of  commerce  :  2. 

Salii  :  23. 

satire:    113. 

scutum  :  70. 

secession:  first,  B.C.  494,  43 ;  second, 
B.C.  449,  59;   third,  B.C.  286,  94. 

Sempronian  law  :   see  law. 

Senate  :  19,  62;  governing  body,  95; 
"assembly  of  kings,"  98;  govern- 
ment, 162,  182;  appointment,  19, 
183;  census,  195;  under  empire, 
232;  under  Severus,  280;  muni- 
cipal, 310. 

senattis  consnlta  :  62. 

serfdom :   predial,  264. 

sestertius :  102. 


370 


INDEX  OF  ANTIQUITIES. 


Sibylline  books :  t^^. 
silver  currency :  102. 
slave    labor:    76,   lOi,   150;    its  fatal 

character,     187;      regulated,    218; 

consequences,  264. 
slaves:   character,  89;   revolt,  151. 
socii  :  see  allies. 
solidus  :  303. 
spoil  a  opinia  :  III. 
standard:    171. 
succession:  rules,  243,  24S,  261,  273, 

301,  304,  311. 
sujfragium  :  63. 
Syncretism:   283-284. 

tabulae  :  59. 

taxation:  by  Servius  Tullius,  33;  in- 
cident illustrating,  41;  upon  pos- 
sessors of  public  land,  47-48;  re- 
lations of  censor  to,  64;  provinces 
relieved  from  revenues,  148;  farm- 
ing of,  153;  effect  of  edict  of 
Caracalla,  281 ;  land  tax  made  uni- 
form, 299;   in  fourth  century,  310. 

temple:  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus,  30; 
of  Diana,  34;  of  Castor,  36;  of 
Juno,  68;  of  Juno,  on  Capitol,  71 ; 
of  Concord,  75,  165;  of  ^-Escula- 
pius,  96;  of  Juno  Aloneta,  102;  of 
Caesar,  224;  of  Janus,  229;  built 
by  Augustus,  238;   Pantheon,  239. 

Terentilian  law  :  see  law. 

Theatre  of  Pompey:   239. 

Thirty  Tyrants :   291,292. 

titjiocracy  :  31. 

tithe-lands:   260. 

torqties  :   78. 

trades:   centuries,  33. 

tradition:   13,  57. 


treason :  law,  246. 

treasury:   65. 

treaty:  with  Latins,  34;  with  Gabii, 
34;  of  Spurius  Cassius,  44;  with 
Carthage,  35,  79;  with  Gauls,  72; 
with  Samnitcs,  79;   with  Tarentum, 

97- 
iriai-ii :    69,    127,    170;     centurions, 

tribes:  patrician,  17;  of  Servius  Tul- 
lius, y^^;  composed  of  land-owners, 
88;  reorganized,  89;  made  basis 
of  centuriate  assembly,  113;  Ger- 
man, 285. 

tribunes:  military,  20;  with  consular 
power,  63. 

tribunes:  of  plebs,  43;  usurpation  of 
power,  50;  number  increased,  53; 
power  to  impose  hnes,  57;  powers, 
62;  mischievous  powers,  155;  re- 
stricted by  Sulla,  183;  restored, 
184. 

tributiiin  :  33,  48. 

triumvirate :   200,  227. 

twelve  tables:   59. 

usury:   74;   laws,  78;   trials,  188. 

Vestal  Virgins:   25. 

vicar :   299, 

\'illian  law  :  see  law. 

walls:  of  Rome,  16;  of  Servius  Tul- 
lius, 31;  Cyclopean,  45;  Hadrian's, 
269;   Aurelian's,  293. 

worship:  ofCybele,  129;  of  Bacchus, 
140. 

yoke  :  sending  under,  87. 


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